In the essay “Regarding the Pain of Others” by Susan Sontag, it is an essay about the manipulation and functions of photography. Sontag goes through many functions of photography. Sontag starts off with beautifying. According to Sontag beautifying is, “ classic operation of the camera, and it tends to bleach out a moral response to what is shown.” (653). In others words Sontag means beautifying makes photo appear better than the actuality of the image. Uglifying according to Sontag is “showing something at it’s worst.” (653). The next function Sontag talks about is didactic. Sontag states that “it invites an active response.”(653). Sontag means that photography is used for the intention of teaching. Sontag starts her opening body paragraph
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Author’s job is to create an image your mind, to make you believe in one way or another, to illustrate. The function of illstruate is the ability for a photo to do many things: create a memory, create and construct ideas and memories, and many more. The function of illstruate can be easily seen in the article “Revisiting 9/11: Unpublished Photos by James Nachtwey” ,by David Levi Strauss.” In this article there are many photos of the tragic event of 9/11. The photo illustrate the burning of the twin tower, the debris coming off of the building, and firefighters working in the field digging for bodies. These photos illustrates a time of confusion, tragedy, pandemonium, and many more. Just like evidence, illustrations can create and reconstruct memories of an event. For instance, I have never been to Nazi concentration camp, nor was I born in that area, but if you were ask me what a concentration camp look like I could get a rough image. Why is that? Photographs has create prototypes in our head of what a concentration camp might look like any many more things. Sontag effectively explain the importance of illustration in photography. Sontag talks about how “the illustrative function of photographs leave opinions, prejudices, fantasies, misinformation untouched.” (654.) By this she means that the function of illustrate is a function of photography that is not alter or manipulated in anyway. It just presents the snapshot of the exact moment and allow the audience to decide the meaning of the photo. She uses the example of government lying about death toll of a conflict can be exposed through the illustration of dead bodies in the photographs. Although I would say I slightly disagree with the idea that illustration of photographs are unedited and leaves no bias. Going back to what I said in beginning of the paragraph, every photo has an author and author’s goal are to convey and change your
Author’s job is to create an image your mind, to make you believe in one way or another, to illustrate. The function of illstruate is the ability for a photo to do many things: create a memory, create and construct ideas and memories, and many more. The function of illstruate can be easily seen in the article “Revisiting 9/11: Unpublished Photos by James Nachtwey” ,by David Levi Strauss.” In this article there are many photos of the tragic event of 9/11. The photo illustrate the burning of the twin tower, the debris coming off of the building, and firefighters working in the field digging for bodies. These photos illustrates a time of confusion, tragedy, pandemonium, and many more. Just like evidence, illustrations can create and reconstruct memories of an event. For instance, I have never been to Nazi concentration camp, nor was I born in that area, but if you were ask me what a concentration camp look like I could get a rough image. Why is that? Photographs has create prototypes in our head of what a concentration camp might look like any many more things. Sontag effectively explain the importance of illustration in photography. Sontag talks about how “the illustrative function of photographs leave opinions, prejudices, fantasies, misinformation untouched.” (654.) By this she means that the function of illustrate is a function of photography that is not alter or manipulated in anyway. It just presents the snapshot of the exact moment and allow the audience to decide the meaning of the photo. She uses the example of government lying about death toll of a conflict can be exposed through the illustration of dead bodies in the photographs. Although I would say I slightly disagree with the idea that illustration of photographs are unedited and leaves no bias. Going back to what I said in beginning of the paragraph, every photo has an author and author’s goal are to convey and change your