Sontag's On Photography

Sontag begins by mentioning photography is around us wherever we go. May it be the posters on the wall, the newspapers on the side of the street, or even in house hanging on the wall. Sontag mentions, “newspapers and magazines feature them; cops alphabetize them; and publishers compile them.” They surround us, and today, these photographs tell us a lot about who’s in the photos. I believe that the photographs today are very much linked psychologically to what Sontag was talking about in On Photography.
Susan Sontag explains that photography is no longer a way to remember the past, rather it is, “a way of certifying experiences…” This simply goes to justify that people are taking pictures to remind themselves of what they have done. With the amount of technology available today, someone can go to Paris in a picture from the comfort of their computer chair. This, Sontag explains, is very deceiving to people because no one can tell except for the person taking or making that photograph.
Photographs have been a way to capture the past so you can enjoy in the present and future, yet what they symbolize is partly fake. Each time a photograph is being taken, the photographer often says cheese, to have the subject smile, even though they might not be in a happy state. This creates false truths about the photograph and the people, which in the future, we wonder about and try to figure out whether the photo represents something real or fake.
After reading Sontag’s On Photography, the phrase a photo says a thousand words, has a new meaning. Sontag explains that a photo, no matter how beautiful can be indistinct and create false truths. Sontag mentions, “to photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves…” If the subject of the photograph doesn’t seem to be able to know what state of mind they are in while taking the photograph, then who are we to judge whether that smile on their face is legit or just a show.