Beth and I spent most of our free time while living in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle and Portland) going shooting. It was shocking to me to discover that some people thought we were target practicing or worse, hunting! After thinking about it awhile, the language of photography - shooting, loading, - really is identical to that of the world of guns.
While doing some research on Annie Leibovitz, I discovered that her partner of many years is the esteemed Susan Sontag. When I discovered that Ms. Sontag wrote a book entitled On Photography, the book became a must-read title for me.
Sontag theorizes that a camera is sold as a predatory weapon. This disturbs me - and makes me question my motives in what I consider a quest for art - is it really about dominance and possession?
Anyway, I liked this passage from Sontag's book as it combines my passion for photography with my love of nature. It raises some interesting questions...
Eventually, people might learn to act out more of their aggressions with cameras and fewer with guns. One situation where people are switching from bullets to film is the photographic safari that is replacing the gun safari in East Africa. The hunters have Hasselblads { I would submit - the LUCKY ones have Hasselblads -nyro4797} instead of Winchesters; instead of looking through a telescopic sight to aim a rifle, they look through a viewfinder to frame a picture. Guns have metamorphosed into cameras in this earnest comedy, the ecology safari, because nature has ceased to be what it always had been - what people needed protection from. Now nature - tamed, endangered, mortal - needs to be protected from people.
When we are afraid, we shoot. But when we are nostalgic, we take pictures.
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2 comments:
i did not know that about susan sontag and annie liebovitz. i always assumed the photographer was single, given the "difficult artist" persona she presents to the world.
sometimes i wish i had the winchester...
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