Quotes
- “But print seems a less treacherous form of leaching out the world, of turning it into a mental object, than photographic images, which now provide most of the knowledge people have about the look of the past and the reach of the present." (Susan Sontag: On Photography)
- "To photograph is to appropriate the thing being photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge, and therefore like power.” (Susan Sontag: On Photography)
- "The meaning of a painting no longer resides no longer in its unique painted surface, which it is only possible to see at one place of one time. It's meaning, or a large part of it, has become transmittable". (John Berger Ways of Seeing)
- "The interminable present of meaningless working hours is 'balanced' by a dreamt future in which imaginary activity replaces the passivity of the moment" (John Berger Ways of Seeing
"I took a picture of people taking pictures of the Mona Lisa" (Reddit 2019)
I choose this photo in relation to the second quote from Susan Sontag's "On Photography" because it really seemed so fitting. I was looking for an image that could describe the progression of media and how we can now interact with it differently because of technology. You can interpret this image in two ways: 1. The people in the crown are not living "in the moment", forgoing their experience by taking a snapshot of a historical art piece. 2. They are establishing their presence in the moment, interacting with a piece of the past from the future, cementing their own unique footprint on history. ( In this case, when they reflect back on their photos they can say "Yes, I was here" or "I saw it with my own eyes"). I nearly chose a photo with people taking selfies with the Mona Lisa, but I feel like you can really feel the intensity in people's faces, their concentration on both their phones and the painting in this one.
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