Sontag "Photography Within The Humanities"

Photography within the Humanities- Susan Sontag

Once again the question is brought up about whether or not photography is an art. This query is raised since the topic of photography within the humanities is discussed. I feel that this article is more of a question of if photography has a place within the humanities, and Sontag is explaining that if it does, it contains a central place. Photography is a form of art under certain limitations along with raising all kinds of questions regarding history and morality.
Sontag begins be explaining that her purpose is to discuss the problems raised by the presence of photography. She feels that it is important to study photography by looking at photographs and learning how to see. The results of learning how to see can be extended into other ways of seeing; one kind named photographic seeing. People start to see by means of the camera. Since some people are habitual camera users, they change their way of seeing. Sontag states “The world becomes a series of events that you transform into pictures, and those events have reality, so far as you have the pictures of them.”
This part of Sontag’s article was extremely interesting for me to read. I am constantly thinking about exactly what she has stated here. I feel as if wherever I am in the world on a daily basis I see certain things that I then create a photograph of what I see. I have actually spoken to my close friends who are not photographers about this. I find it to be so interesting that I see in this manner and I ask them if that ever happens to them at all. They sort of look at me like I have ten heads and once I explain myself they just say; well I’m not the photographer. I was so excited while I read this part of Sontag’s article because it made me realize that this happens to most photographers and reading about a certain situation that I experience on a daily basis was to state it simply as pretty cool. One thing that I was distraught about was the fact when Sontag explained that her purpose was to discuss the problems raised by the presence of photography. Why is it a problem if photographers just see in a different manner than everyone else in the world?