On Photography is a modern classic with a series of seminal essays from 1977 that consider moral and aesthetic questions about photography as an art form. The author is the highly acclaimed American author, Susan Sontag, (1933-2004), who here examines the value that photography has been given in capitalist society, among other things through idealistic portrayals of artists from Andy Warhol to Diane Arbus.
Sonntag discusses the ways in which we use the ubiquitous photographs to create a sense of reality and authority in our lives.
She observes that "the insatiability of the photographic eye" has completely changed our relationship with the world. That photographs have the power to shock, idealize or seduce, that they create a sense of nostalgia and function as a memorial, and can be used as evidence against us, or to identify us.
Susan Sontag was a leading cultural commentator until her death in 2004 and was educated at the University of Chicago, at Harvard, and at Oxford.
Dimensions: H: 17.9 x W: 11.2 x D: 1.8 mm, paperback
Pages: 224
Language: English
Author: Susan Sontag
Publisher: Penguin Publishing