On photogrpahy--a book full of non-sense??

S

saiseto

Guest
Any one here have read the book 'On photography' by Susan Sontag? I have seen in another forum saying this book is only full of 'BULL SHIT' where Ms. Sontag only expressing some simple concepts with very diffcult words and confusing idea. In fact, the guy in that forum actually used an example of 'mother is a woman' to compare with the ideas and concepts in Ms. Sontag's book.

I personally think Ms. Sontag has provided a very interesting view on how photography has changed and affecting our life in this book. It also rised some questions on how a photgrapher should think and consider about its work. Even some of the points maybe not be completely agreed by everyone, I just can't see why the term 'bull shit' would be appropriate to discribe this book.

So, what do people here think about this book?
 
Have you read the book? I haven't, so I can't make any judgement on it. Maybe you shouldn't either, especially when that judgement is based on the very personal of a single induhvidual. If you can get the book, get it and read it. IMO that's the only useful way of forming your own opinion on a book. :)
 
Just bought a copy, after reading an article about Sontag and her writing, in Black & White Photography (Issue 44, p30). The article closes with the suggestion that she stepped back from the most provocative arguments of On Photography in her later writing. I have not yet got far into the book, but it is certainly thought-provoking.
 
RML said:
Have you read the book? I haven't, so I can't make any judgement on it. Maybe you shouldn't either, especially when that judgement is based on the very personal of a single induhvidual. If you can get the book, get it and read it. IMO that's the only useful way of forming your own opinion on a book. :)
Click to expand...

From his post, it seems like he did actually read the book and was expressing his disagreement that the book was labelled a lousy read by members of another forum.
 
The BS comment was made in a photographic forum in Hong Kong. However, the forum is written almost completely in chinese and that's why i didn't put up a link here.
 
Schedule me for my lobotomy then because I think it's one of the worst books on photography ever written. We discussed it on this forum in the midst of another thread but, unfortunately, I can't recall the thread name.

Cheers,

Sean
 
saiseto said:
The BS comment was made in a photographic forum in Hong Kong. However, the forum is written almost completely in chinese and that's why i didn't put up a link here.
Click to expand...


how do you say "bull shit" in chinese
 
RubenBlaedel said:
how do you say "bull shit" in chinese
Click to expand...

I don't recall a term which quite shares the same meaning as "BS" in the chinese language. Perhaps an expression which is oftentimes used to described a ridiculous situation can be used in its place... "fung pee!". The direct traslation is flatulence, somewhat related to "BS" I suppose.
 
I read the book when it first came out (back in the late 1970s, I believe.) At that time I was working at a job that required writing occasional art criticism articles, and I thought I had better be up on it because it was getting a lot of attention in those circles.

I thought it was a worthwhile book -- but the thing you've got to remember (and this was discussed heavily in the art-criticism and philosophy press at the time) is that despite its title, it really wasn't, and wasn't intended to be, a "photography book."

Sontag's overall intellectual posture was as a social critic -- specifically, a leftist, feminist social critic -- and the book was more about how photographic representation fit into her overall philosophical view of society. If you've worked your way through any of her other books (at that time her magnum opus was considered to be "Styles of Radical Will") you'll get what I mean.

Having said that, I did find some ideas in the book useful to me as a photographer. In particular, I was struck by her tossed-off remark about photographers "looking at the world as [merely] a collection of potential photographs."

Thinking about that made me decide I didn't want to live my life that way, and caused me to rethink my approach to photography, moving away from the photojournalistic, hit-and-run, search-for-one-iconic image I was involved with then, and toward the more long-term, in-depth observation style I try to practice today. (Incidentally, that switch in approach was also what drew me back to using a rangefinder camera.)

I probably would have been a much more successful photographer if I hadn't made that change, but I don't regret having made it. So in that sense, I'd have to say Sontag's book (or at least that one idea in it) had a big effect on me, and I consider that effect to have been beneficial.

Incidentally, here's another example of one little idea in a book changing my outlook as a photographer: In the foreword to a book of photographs by Elliot Erwitt, there was a profile of the photographer entitled "The Man Who Kept Something for Himself." The title came from an idea Erwitt had mentioned in an interview for the profile: that while you can work as a photographer with the idea of satisfying customers or pleasing other people, it's important to keep something of your photography for yourself, something that doesn't need to satisfy anyone except you.

I would have been a lot more successful if I hadn't tripped over that idea, too, but because of it I've been a lot happier as a photographer...
 
Diana & Nikon, Camera Lucida

Diana & Nikon, Camera Lucida

I'll pretty much second jlw's comments, although the book didn't have the same impact on me as a photographer.

I read the book and enjoyed it and I now like a lot of Sontag's writing.

I've also heard she had later distanced herself from the book, but I haven't heard the reasoning.

You may want to look at "Diana & Nikon" by Janet Malcolm. I don't think Malcolm writes as well as Sontag, but it's along the same lines as "On Photography" as art criticism, but as I recall, with more emphasis on specific photographers and examples of their work to reinforce a concepts she is presenting.

There is also Roland Barthes "Camera Lucida" which I haven't read, so i won't comment on him.
 
i'm so impressed with the dialogue on this forum. around the time of her death, posters and poseurs on other fourms lambasted her and her work, in such b.s. fashion, that i was left with a high disregard for those individuals, at least on the intellectual level. i've always thought of ms. sontag as a philosopher, and writer, on a wide variety of subjects. i had the opportunity to see and hear her speak on a couple of occasions- she was fantastic. and i have to say, i didn't get or understand everything she spoke about those evenings, but i knew she had a great intellect and mind. tj
 
backalley photo said:
i dont read but i like to look at the pictures...

joe
Click to expand...
.............................
Joe,
I've heard they're coming out with a scratch-N-sniff version. :D
 
Sean Reid said:
Schedule me for my lobotomy then because I think it's one of the worst books on photography ever written. We discussed it on this forum in the midst of another thread but, unfortunately, I can't recall the thread name.

Cheers,

Sean
Click to expand...


Your comment Sean made me think about my time in graduate school. For a long time I couldn't stand to read any critical writings on photography. It gave me a headache. One summer between semesters, something changed for me and I began to read as many critical writings on photography as I could get my hands on. I was hungry. Andy Grunberg, Roland Barthes, A.D. Coleman ,Robert Adams, and I began to re-read essays written by Julia Scully in the old Modern Photography magazine of the 70's. They were great and extremely thought provoking, and helped me to understand what I was doing. I guess I was looking for something - an understanding within my own work to express not just in images, but verbally as well. To dismiss Sontag's book "as one of the worst books on photography ever written", is, with all due respect, a bit unfair. I think you should read some of these other books when you have the time and are in the right frame of mind. You might find yourself actually enjoying them and understanding more of photography's importance, on many levels. To understand more of who and what we are, and do, is important.

Cheers.
 
Last edited:
Kbg32, I think Sean is entitled to his opinion, just like you are yours. We both don't know enough about Sean's reasoning and past experience to know what he founded his opinion on, so we can hardly judge him on that (if we want to do that anyway).

But you're right that (for some at least) it's important to know why we're shooting at all. The same goes for me and I would like to ask you if you could list the authors and the book titles (preferable with ISBN numbers) of the books you were talking about. Critical writing on photography is scarce here in Holland and finding out about (to me) foreign books on this topic is migh impossible, except through the likes of you and other members here on RFF.
 
I tried to read this book and got through 1/2 of it but it just gives me a headeache! I am a visual person and am not so much drawn by words. On top of that, I try to live and photograph intuitively, trying not to let intlellectualizing interfere with the experience. This book of words on photography criticism is everything that I am not. It's not my style nor cup of tea.
 
RML,

Here are a few books with ISBN numbers. There are many other great reads on photography. A. D. Coleman and Andy Grundberg' s writings I strongly recommend as a place to start. Depending on how versed you are in photo history, you may need to research some of the photographers they write about. Grundberg used to be the photography critic for the New York Times, and before that wrote for Modern Photography Magazine in the late 70's early 80's.

Light Readings: A Photography Critic's Writings 1968-1978 by A.D. Coleman ISBN: 0826316670
Beauty in Photography: Essays in Defense of Traditional Values by Robert Adams ISBN: 0893813680
Why People Photograph: Selected Essays and Reviews by Robert Adams ISBN: 0893816035
Crisis of the Real: Writings on Photography Since 1974 (Writers and Artists on Photography) by Andy Grundberg ISBN: 0893818550

Cheers.
 
FrankS,

Beleive me, this is not about intellectualizing. It's about understanding and being informed. We are free to dislike or like as we choose. Free to read or not. I used to be so much against reading this stuff as the next person. Sontag writings certainly may not be the place to start if one wants to read critical essays. There are many great writers and writings out there to be discovered and enjoyed on many levels. Or not.

It never hurts to have knowledge.

Cheers,

Keith
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom