[Leica] Susan Sontag

[Gary Elshaw <gary.elshaw@vuw.ac.nz>]

Erwin wrote:
>Marshall Mc Luhan was right about it: the medium is the message.


Wow, i'm catching up on 3 days of Leica posts and find mention of two 
of my favourite critics!

Sontag isn't going to change the way you make images, but she will 
allow you to rethink how they can be interpreted, in the same way 
that Roland Barthes' 'Image, Music, Text' will (Sontag owes him 
big-time for this work). I'm currently working with both McLuhan and 
Sontag for my thesis, and after that i'll be writing a lot about 
McLuhan for publication (hopefully). McLuhan has some great things to 
say about photography, especially the use of images and politics and 
what they're capable of meaning over the years. One of his best 
observations about photographs in 'Understanding Media' is in the 
context of the cold war. Having the image of being the first to the 
moon is a far greater political tool than necessarily having done it.

This context in recent news. Late 60's (?) images of Russian ICBM's 
being paraded in Red Square which then gets televised 
internationally. The fact is that USSR technology at the time wasn't 
quite up to speed and the missiles were fabrications to make the 
international media/politicians etc. believe the USSR was capable of 
nuclear strike. Not only this, but instead of making governments look 
after social services etc. it helped create an arms race whereby 
governments increased military funding, and increased social 
discontent. Needless to say, not only did the images work, but they 
kept the effectiveness of them quiet until earlier this year. I think 
that's quite cool.

Ahhh, history, my wanton mistress.... :-)

Take care,
Gary


- -- 

"The difficulty now is that unexceptional adults believe the loss of 
youthful dreaming is itself "growing up," as though adulthood were 
the passive conclusion to a doomed activity and hope during 
adolescence."


OO             The Uses of Disorder
[_]<|          Personal Identity and City Life -- Richard Sennett
  /|\
Gary Elshaw
Post-Grad Film Student
Victoria University
New Zealand
http://elshaw.tripod.com/