09 February 2007

to show something "out there"

"Virtuosi of the noble image like Alfred Stieglitz and Paul Strand, composing mighty, unforgettable photographs decade after decade, still want, first of all, to show something "out there," just like the Polaroid owner for whom photographs are a handy, fast form of note-taking, or the shutterbug with a Brownie who takes snapshots as souvenirs of daily life."
/Susan Sontag "On photography"

Read excerpt here, and you should read the book. It´s hard to find anything better written about photography.
-urbano


2 comments:

Unknown said...

I read Susans book now and then
it gives me a lot
every time

Anonymous said...

this is a classical book about pictures - watching and making... really improving.
try to find something by John Berger - his essays about the photography are really rocking!

those two are just perfect:
Ways of Seeing (1972)
About Looking (1980)
more to read here: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/john-berger/