The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! 😌
A review by slow_spines
Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag
challenging
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
An engaging, well written and conversational account of the role images play in depicting suffering that can easily read in a single sitting.
The themes of the essay are summed up early on when Sontag writes, "to photograph is to frame, and to frame is to exclude". It covers a lot of ground and leaves many questions for the reader, but I think the central ones are: in what sense is an image objective, how do we respond as a result of that presupposition, and with regards to representing suffering, how do art and photography differ? The book closes with some thoughts on how we ought to respond, living as we do in a world of image and information hypersaturation. It was an unexpected conclusion given everything that came before it, but it was at least vaguely hopeful.Â
Its heady stuff, but was far more readable than I expected it to be. I wish she had written more.Â
The themes of the essay are summed up early on when Sontag writes, "to photograph is to frame, and to frame is to exclude". It covers a lot of ground and leaves many questions for the reader, but I think the central ones are: in what sense is an image objective, how do we respond as a result of that presupposition, and with regards to representing suffering, how do art and photography differ? The book closes with some thoughts on how we ought to respond, living as we do in a world of image and information hypersaturation. It was an unexpected conclusion given everything that came before it, but it was at least vaguely hopeful.Â
Its heady stuff, but was far more readable than I expected it to be. I wish she had written more.Â