"A photograph is both a pseudo-presence and a token of absence"
-Susan Sontag
Sontag, S. (1977) "In Plato's Cave".
On Photography, 3-24.
This essay, the first in Susan Sontag's classic collection, extols the benefits of the still image over motion pictures. She sights the influence and power of the photograph, writing about one image in particular, the Vietnamese girl, stripped of her clothing and running away from a napalm attack during the Vietnam war. Sontag opines that the hours of destruction in Vietnam aired on American television in the 1970s were not nearly as effective and memorable as that single still image of the girl. The critic writes, "Television is a stream of underselected images, each of which cancels its predecessor". With photography, the artist pays closer attention to the composition and details, distilling what could be an entire narrative down to a single frame. In many cases, there are too many images in film to really appreciate the individual shots. Sontag appreciates the tangibility of photographs, whereas film needs to projected through a machine and cannot be physically interacted with to the same extent. She sees photographs as a unique moment in time; more accessible and considered than motion pictures.
While I am a great admirer of film and would love to experiment more with the medium, I do agree with Sontag. Photography can be extremely potent, when handled correctly. As with several artists I am inspired by, I aim to use the medium to relay an entire story, recounted through the visuals, without relying on text or audio.
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