Due 9/12
READINGS
John Berger Ways of Seeing Ch7 on BLACKBOARD
Susan Sontag excerpt from On Photography
1.) On John Berger's Ways of Seeing, the quotes I chose were: Capitalism survives by forcing the majority, whom it exploits, to define their own interests as narrowly as possible. Today in the developed countries it is being achieved by imposing a false standard of what is and what is not desirable.
My reaction statement:
With an adamant audience and participants in America;s consumer culture, it is all too common that celebrities are used to promote and endorse a product and inspire their fans to also buy that product. Kylie Jenner;s lip kits, Nike footwear, and skincare products like Proactiv gain an elevated platforms when celebrities feature them in a tweet or Instagram post or commercial on TV. The 1% upper echelon has great strength in the power of suggestion since we live in a materialistic society.
2.) On Susan Sontag's "On Photography", the quotes that resonated with me were: Photographs which fiddle with the scale of the world, themselves get reduced, blown up, cropped, retouched, doctored, tricked out. They age, plagued by the ills of paper and objects; they disappear; they become valuable, and get bought and sold; they are reproduced.
My reaction statement:
This struck a chord with me because photography, when we are talking about it as a function outside of art is also a tool for information. Photography can capture beauty and aesthetic but it captures knowledge, as well. The fallibility of the human memory is fragile and perpetual. We only remember something accurately and correctly once and only once. After some time, a memory becomes sentimental rather than a luxury. What I mean by this is with the advent and rapid growth of technology and consumer culture, people now are adept with handling their devices and are used to social media. Taking selfies and group photos in front of the Eiffel tower in Paris, Niagara falls, or Mount Fuji for likes and comments is more often than not spontaneous and we do it because it makes us feel validated or we feel like we belong to a group--a collective. Before the bombing of the Twin Towers, people might have took pictures with it in the background and they would have never known that the structure would be gone one fateful day. The photos then become valuable within the passing of time and they become fossils.
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