Sontag's "America Seen Through Photographs, Darkly"

Image Credit: Diane Arbus

Image Credit: Diane Arbus

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Susan Sontag's "America Seen Through Photographs, Darkly" explores the art form of photography. As I read, I felt as though Sontag argued that the subject matter of one photograph is just as important or just as beautiful as another. Photographers used to focus mainly on universally beautiful subjects for their work (such as a flower or a woman).

However, some photographers have deviated from this trend and began photographing subjects that seem less than beautiful to the viewer. She extensively uses Arbus' photographs as an example, as Arbus focused on photographing "ugly" subjects (a few of Arbus' photographs are shown above). In one of her personal writings, Arbus mentioned that people immediately focus on flaws when viewing others as a reason for her choice of subjects. Through photographing traditionally less than beautiful subjects, Arbus was arguing and supporting Sontag's argument that everything is beautiful.

Sontag also argued that the context shapes the interpretation of the photograph. Arbus chose to photograph only people and things that were seemingly out of the ordinary such as the woman in the wheelchair with the mask or the boy with the awkward smile. Despite these photographs seeming "strange" at first glimpse, a closer look into the photograph and what surrounds the photograph might give clues to the photograph's normalcy.

Towards the end of the essay, I began thinking about the media and art and its role in our society. Sontag discusses how several things are that are suppressed in our society later become integrated into our society (images of death and dying, for example). It seems to me that art might be a vehicle for the suppressed to become an accepted part of society. As people are more exposed to shocking things, the element of shock decreases, thus allowing more acceptance on the part of the viewer.

I do agree with all of these concepts I have extracted from Sontag's essay, and I believe Arbus is a powerful example to use to illustrate these ideas of "there is beauty in everything" and "context is important in interpreting". While I did not look too much into the photographs I selected to include in this blog, I can think of numerous reasons for the people in the photographs to be acting or smiling the way that they are. For example, the boy might have just been frightened while playing outside, giving him the awkward smile and unkept appearance.

In one part of the essay, Sontag stated that the "weird" or "ugly" people photographed did not show signs of pain or despair like the people that were seemingly normal in photographs. This might seem contrary to what one might think because someone in an insane asylum, for example, might have some inner struggles due to the society they live in. However, she later references a secondary source that mentions that people that are unaware they are being photographed will show more of their true feelings than will someone that has been posed for a photograph. Since Arbus' subjects consented to and posed for the photograph, wouldn't that be the reason that her "ugly" subjects did not show their pains to the camera?