Sontag on photography

Plato's cave theory comes from the Republic. Plato invented a cave with a rock wall, and the people inside faced the rock wall from childhood but could not see the other side of the light. People outside make people inside understand things by projecting things on the rock wall and imitating sounds. In this way, when the people inside finally come into contact with the real things outside, they don't feel as real as the images on the rock wall.

Thinking about Plato's cave runs through susan sontag's photography theory. The significance of Plato's cave is very similar to the relationship between the truth of photography and light and shadow.

Living in Plato's cave, it is extremely difficult for human beings to distinguish what is real and what is real projection image.

Taking photos is a way to verify the experience, and it is also a way to refuse the experience-that is, just limit the experience to finding the object suitable for shooting and turn the experience into images and souvenirs. Travel has become a strategy to accumulate photos.

The secret revealed in the era of national photography is that everyone becomes a voyeur and is also a voyeur. On the one hand, we marvel at how real the expressive force of images is. On the other hand, we are also deeply wary of the deception of images.

Therefore, susan sontag revealed the essence of photography through the hint of Plato's cave-approaching the truth and rejecting it at the same time.