Susan Sontag “The Image World”

This reading definitely shaped the way I think about photos. Particularly the part about images being a sort of ‘second life’ that is immortal. This idea clicked with me when thinking about how wrong it would feel to destroy a photo of a loved one. I personally believe we are all bodies of light. With this theory Nadar’s explanation, “everybody in its natural state was made up of a series of ghostly images superimposed in layers to infinity, wrapped in infinitesimal films… each Daguerrian operation was therefore going to lay hold of, detach, and use one of the layers of the body on which it focused.” This theory is interesting to think about. 

    Going with the immortality of an image, “...people in industrialized countries seek to have their photographs taken--feel that they are images, and are made real by photographs”. I absolutely agree with this. Especially with our ever expanding digital world, but I also feel there has been a more recent trend to be more private about sharing images online with a better understanding of the power. Once something is posted online it is there forever in some form.  

Photos in relation to memory, are like notes. They definitely help us remember the moment and in some cases create new memories. When I look at old photos of myself they often spark the memories of what was happening when that photo was taken and past memories of when I looked at the same photo.