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A review by c_lally
On Photography by Susan Sontag
challenging
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Sontag's insights on the effects of mass visual media on our culture hold up remarkably well for a book that's more than 50 years old, and there's some great quotes that distil the appeal of photography as an art form. However chapter 2 is brutal - it's mostly concerned with Diane Arbus' portraiture of disabled people, who Sontag sees as "grotesques". She writes with open revulsion about the perverse and misguided attempt to imbue them with dignity. If you skip chapter 2, you can probably give this 5 stars, but I didn't so I can't.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism
The second chapter discusses the work of portrait photographer Diane Arbus, who included disabled people among her subjects. Sontag spends most of a chapter expressing visceral disgust at the perverse and futile attempt to imbue "freaks and grotesques" with dignity and presence through portraiture. It's pretty rough and a baffling digression from an otherwise very insightful book. If this would bother you, skip chapter 2.