14/10/2018
Questions and answers concerning photographs, seeing and education, from Kathmandu:
"Of photography, essayist Susan Sontag wrote, “In teaching us a new visual code, photographs alter and enlarge our notions of what is worth looking at and what we have a right to observe.” This she wrote in the 1970s, well into the entry of photography in mainstream commerce, but also long before the digital revolution equipped ordinary people with smartphones to shoot and social media to share. It is estimated that more than 1.2 trillion photographs were taken in 2017, with the number likely to increase this year. In her reflections, Sontag appears to be hinting towards the power that is inherent in the visual medium of photography. Now multiply that by 1.2 trillion. What happens to that power, then? Does it boggle our reality like it boggles the mind? Or does it get diluted, infinitesimally, until it is faded and forgotten?
As everyday producers and consumers of photographs, how much have we taken stock of what they can teach? What kind of visual code is dictating our wakeful, screen-infested days? What are the notions being deemed worthy? And what gets excluded, unseen?"
Of photography, essayist Susan Sontag wrote, “In teaching us a new visual code, photographs alter and enlarge our notions of what is worth looking at and what we have a right to observe.