DILA TOPLUSOY

Analysis of Susan Sontags Writing on

Photography and a Critical Interpretation of a
Photograph

Photographs alter and enlarge our notions of what is

worth looking at and what we have a right to observe.
They are a grammar and, even more importantly, an
ethics of seeing. (Sontag, 1977, p.3) Susan Sontag, an
American human rights activist, journalist and novelist,
(Biography, 2015) focuses mainly on the outstanding
changes that have occurred in the perception and roles of
the medium of photography throughout its history and
explains its diverse effects on people in the modern world,
in her writing In Platos Cave taken from her well-known
book On Photography(1977). The following paper is
going to analyze the essential opinions and arguments in
the writing and examine a particular photograph, "The
Agony of Omayra Snchez" taken by photojournalist Frank
Fournier, through Sontags ideas and perspective.

Sontag states that photographs serve as indisputable

evidence if there is a photograph of something, then
there is not a doubt that it happened. This feature of
photographs can be used in either accusing or defending
something or someone that is the subject of the specific
photograph. Furthermore, she explains how photography
changed in time and says that photography started to be
perceived as an art by its industrialization , which created
social uses of photography, for the photographer. However
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in the next paragraph, she indicates that the majority of

people do not practice photography as an art in the
modern world, since it is now a mass art form,
extensively engaged in, like sex and dancing. According to
Sontag, that it is now perceived mainly as a social rite,
a defense against anxiety and a tool of power.
(Sontag, 1977, p.8)

Her first definition is associated with the connection she

makes between cameras and family life. She says that
families regard photography as a rite of family life,
(Sontag, 1977, p.8) proof of the connectivity of family
members with each other, even though it vanishes in
time. The second definition she gives is related to the
close relationship of photography and tourism. She
explains how taking photographs have become a main
activity while travelling, to a point where people cant stop
using their camera when they see something significant
for them. Sontag gives the example of Japanese and
American people, who can be seen as workaholics, to
illustrate how photography serves as a defense against
anxiety. The absence of work during holiday makes the
work-driven people nervous, thus taking photographs fills
the gap for them. The third definition Sontag uses for
photography is connected to the fact that cameras are
ubiquitous in the modern world, which implies that there
are things worth photographing everywhere. This supports
the idea that an event should perform itself until the end,
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no matter what kind of ethical character it has. This way, it

can be photographed and continue to exist in the image.
Sontag criticizes this by saying While real people are out
there killing themselves or other people, the photographer
stays behind his or her camera. (Sontag, 1977, p.11) She
continues her argument by stating that photography is
basically a performance of non-intervention. She says that
nowadays, when a photographer encounters a situation
which requires him to either take a photograph or at least
try to save a life, he chooses the first option and this has
become conceivable in our world. The person who
intervenes cannot record, the person who is recording
cannot intervene. (Sontag, 1977, p.12) She gives
examples from the images of modern photojournalism
such as the Burning Monk.

The photograph that will be examined in the paper, The

Agony of Omayra Snchez, is also a well-known example
of contemporary photojournalism, by which the
photographer Frank Fournier have won a Word Press
Photo Premier Award in 1986. The photograph shows a
13-year-old Colombian girl, Omayra Snchez, struggling
for life as she is trapped in mud and wreckage, because of
a volcanos eruption in Colombia. (The Obvious, 2003) In
the photograph, the girl stares at the camera, her eyes
turned black, hanging on to a piece of wood with her
hands. The photograph illustrates Sontags arguments
about non-intervention, as the photographer chose to take
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a photograph of a dying girls last moments in life. Frank

Fournier received negative comments from many people
because of his choice of capturing that moment,
portraying one of the most intimate and private moments
of a person overtly. He defended himself by saying People
were asking: "Why didn't you help her? Why didn't you get
her out?" But it was impossible. (BBC News, 2005)

Furthermore, Susan Sontag argues that even though a

camera is mainly used to observe, taking a photograph is
more than watching passively, it is still a way of
participating. It is supporting the event that is happening
to continue, the situation to stay as it is, until the
photographer can take a picture that he likes even
though the situation involves a persons misery. This
argument is compatible with the photograph under
discussion, as the photojournalist captured a moment that
was beyond of involving another persons pain, in fact it
was constituted of it. By talking about the good picture
that a photographer wants to take, Sontag claims that
photographers are always obsessed with the issues of
conscience and taste, even when they are most worried
about illustrating reality. She gives the example of the
Farm Security Administration photography project, how
the photographers took a lot of pictures of the subjects
until they thought that the expressions on their face
promoted their own perceptions of different concepts such
as poverty and dignity.
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Moreover, Sontag compares cameras with guns and cars,

saying that cameras are machines of fantasy like them,
which can become an addiction for the person using them.
She argues that even though cameras do not kill, taking a
photograph of something has a predatory side to it. To
photograph people is to violate them It turns people into
objects that can be symbolically possessed. (Sontag,
1977, p.14) Omayra Snchez was photographed while she
was on her deathbed; her suffering was exposed to the
entire world. The photograph, which is known worldwide,
became a symbol of the event, and thus the subject of it
did as well.

Sontag indicates that photographs strongly stimulate

nostalgia. For instance, an unpleasant or strange subject
can be touching, since it has captured the photographers
attention, and got dignified by him. On the other hand, an
appealing subject may generate regretful feelings due to
the fact that it has aged, deteriorated or disappeared. The
subject of the mentioned photograph fits with both
examples. She is mainly in the position of an unpleasant
subject in the photograph, she is trapped in debris and
mud, and her eyes are turned almost completely black,
reflecting pain. However she is also beautiful, not
necessarily in terms of appearance but due to the fact that
she is a 13-year-old little, innocent human being that is a
victim of a catastrophe.
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Furthermore, Sontag says that the photographs that

awaken conscience are always related to a specific
historical situation. She indicates that even if a
photograph portrays a known and undoubted suffering, it
can only have an effect on public opinion if there is a
convenient context of opinion and feeling, more precisely,
a convenient political perception. "The Agony of Omayra
Snchez" had a huge effect when it was published and the
Colombian government was criticized globally, due to their
insufficiency in preventing the tragedy and mishandling of
the rescue operation (The New York Times, 2015) , which
shows that there was an appropriate political
consciousness for this to happen at the time.

The moral impact of a photograph of exploited,

undernourished or assassinated people is also determined
by the extent of familiarity the public has with these kinds
of images. When one encounters the images of a suffering
for the first time, they have the power to shock him and
affect him deeply. However, after seeing these kinds of
images over and over again, they start to lose their power
and realism. One of the main reasons that the particular
photograph had such a massive effect on people was due
to the fact that it was one of the first photographic
examples of suffering and death of a person, portrayed so
explicitly, in history. (The Obvious, 2003) Susan Sontag
argues that nowadays, the huge amount of photographs
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that show agony of people made the atrocity more

common, unremarkable, and even unavoidable. According
to her, the concerned photography has diminished the
conscience of people, as much as it awakened it.

Sontag indicates that photographs can be more

unforgettable than shifting images as they are precise
portions of time. She compares television with
photography, gives the example of The Napalm Girl
photograph to argue that it had a much more big impact
on reinforcing the public reaction, than television did. In
1985, television cameras also recorded the suffering of
Omayra Snchez, however the photograph became very
famous and symbolized the tragedy, instead of the videos.

Susan Sontag points out that most of the photographs lose

their sentimental charge in time, except the photographs
of misery that are considered as ethical reference
points, such as "The Agony of Omayra Snchez". Sontag
explains how photography, after its industrialization, got
involved quickly to the bureaucratic forms of controlling
the public. For example, most of the essential documents
are considered as invalid if they do not include a
photograph of the specific person.

Moreover, Sontag says that each photograph has

diversified meanings. Photographs are inexhaustible
invitations to deduction, speculation and fantasy.
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(Sontag, 1977, p.23) For example, most of the people

thought that Frank Fournier was a vulture and taking a
photograph of a dying girl was unethical, however Fournier
indicated that it was his duty to report it and he
interpreted the image as powerful. (BBC News, 2005)

Susan Sontag states that accepting the world as the

photographs show us is the contrary of understanding,
which begins from not acknowledging the world as it
appears to be. She continues by saying that even though
the photographic knowledge can incite moral sense, it can
never be political or ethical knowledge. The knowledge
that is obtained from photographs will always have an
emotional side to it; it will always be an appearance of
knowledge. "The Agony of Omayra Snchez" undoubtedly
aroused conscience in people, however the knowledge
that people gained through that photograph regarding the
event was mixed with strong emotions - mostly anger,
sorrow or shock.

Sontag, in the conclusion of her writing, draws attention to

the fact that nowadays people are addicted to taking
photographs in order to prove their experiences. This
means that, eventually experiencing something becomes
equal with capturing it, and engaging in an event starts to
become identical with seeing it in a photograph. Today
everything exists to end in a photograph. (Sontag, 1977,
p.24)
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In conclusion, Susan Sontags ideas, her main arguments

and the issues she puts an emphasis on, regarding the
medium of photography were closely examined in the
paper, and the specific photograph The Agony of Omayra
Snchez by Frank Fournier was analyzed in relation to
Sontags arguments. "The Agony of Omayra Snchez"
exemplified Sontags theories remarkably, as Sontag put a
great emphasis on photojournalism, its examples, and its
effects on people throughout her writing and this
photograph is one of the most recognized and debated
examples of the field.

Bibliography

BBC News (2005) BBC News | Picture power: Tragedy of

Omayra Sanchez. Available at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/4231020.stm (Accessed: 28
May 2015)

Biography (2015) Susan Sontag Biography. Available at:

http://www.biography.com/people/susan-sontag-9488814
(Accessed: 27 May 2015)

The Obvious (2003) Photographs that shock the world:

Omayra Sanchez. Available at:
http://obviousmag.org/en/archives/2008/08/photographs_t
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hat_shook_the_world_omayra_sanchez.html (Accessed: 28
May 2015)

The New York Times (2015) Colombias Rescue Operation

Draws Divided Assessments. Available at:
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/11/24/world/colombia-s-
rescue-operation-draws-divided-assessments.html
(Accessed: 28 May 2015)

World Press Photo (no date) 1986 | World Press Photo.

Available at:
http://www.worldpressphoto.org/collection/context/photo/1
986 (Accessed: 28 May 2015)

Sontag, S. (1977) On Photography. New York: Farrar,

Straus and Giroux.