Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/09/26

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Suzy Q, again
From: Martin Howard <howard.390@osu.edu>
Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2000 19:57:49 -0400

Krechtz@aol.com jotted down the following:

> But not all photographs 'confirm' reality or 'enhance' experience. She is
> describing a very limited form of photography. It's like saying all bread is
> white bread, so stay off it.

This is a common technique, and fault, of many critics and one in which I
delightfully partake myself: picking out one limited aspect of something and
secretly generalizing it to cover the whole field.  Quite clearly, Sontag's
comments appear to be about the role of the photograph in Western (or
perhaps the industrial world's) media and commerce.  I think she makes some
valid points about these worlds and those applications, but I think that
their applicability is limited to other areas.

At the same time, much of what she writes is at a very high level of
abstraction.  Lines tend to blur and, in some ways, it almost becomes
possible to exchange 'photography' in those excerpted comments for just
about any other techology-based activity.

M.

- -- 
Martin Howard                     | Jonesboro, AR; Denver, CO;
Visiting Scholar, CSEL, OSU       | Washington, DC; Mount Morris, MI.
email: howard.390@osu.edu         | Bear arms, or bears harm?
www: http://mvhoward.i.am/        +---------------------------------------