Sontag suggest that photographs are not statements about the world , but rather pieces of it. To photograph an object is to have an interest in the object as it is, and is a tactful way of encourage what is happening. The act of taking a photograph of a person is to violate them, to have knowledge of them , to turn them into an object. A photograph is an implement of power.
The act of paparazzi extends to this argument, a camera is a tool of power. To photograph the unsuspecting is to violate them, and take a piece of them with you.

To win 8 gold medals in a single Olympics is an impressive task. So impressive that only one person in world has ever done it, Micheal Phelps. Recently a photograph was released that portrayed Micheal Phelps smoking marijuana out of a bong. This single photograph has tainted his image to eyes of the public and will cost him thousands in endorsement money. This is the power of a single photograph.Sontag suggest that photographs are not statements about the world , but rather pieces of it. To photograph an object is to have an interest in the object as it is, and is a tactful way of encourage what is happening. The act of taking a photograph of a person is to violate them, to have knowledge of them , to turn them into an object. A photograph is an implement of power.The act of paparazzi extends to this argument, a camera is a tool of power. To photograph the unsuspecting is to violate them, and take a piece of them with you.

Sontag suggest that a sense of immortality is captured through a camera lens and produced on a photo; Pictures such as one showing an image of a severly damaged ship with the image of the same ship before a hurricane in the corner exemplifies and emphasizes this claim by suggesting that immortality is a product of photography but not on accident.


Pressing gently down on the button to capture a moment in time is overlooked with the true power this action holds. Cameras are instantly seen as tools of memories and pleasures, and though most people understand this feature cameras have a more effective purpose. Sontag lists different abilities a camera has and the various motivational reasons on why people press down on the button. Reasons include to remember where a person was in the world or to appreciate a moment in time. These moments in time can be painful, joyous or serious but people part take in the action mentioned as a social right. People feel compelled to take pictures as proof of there adventures and "whatever is remarkable that they encounter". But why do people do this? Sontag briefly mentions it but taking a snapshot is a "kind of immortality". It is not just a kind but an actual act of immortality. People have been searching for an oasis or potion capable of this phenomenon, but they have actually have had the tool necessary to be immortalized and it is through a camera. People do not just take pictures to remember and have a sense of achievement in capturing the ultimate "kodak moment", but because it is the only source of immortality in today's world. Taking a picture allows an individual to go through a time machine an feel younger both mentally, spiritually and even physically.

Sontag-essay

Sontag suggests that a photographer can place his/her power into any photograph.  Alfred Eisenstaedt's photo of a mother and child in the destroyed land of Hiroshima after the bombing adds to the Sontag's point that photography is the interpretation of the artist and once the photo is displayed to an audience it gains a degree of power over them.

The choices a photographer makes influence the viewer's ideas because there is a limited frame he or she is forced to examine.  The selection of a subject, emphasized colors, expanse of the background, and angles combined with multiple other decisions give the photographer a power over what the audience will see.  Susan Sontag in her essay on photography argues how photos have the ability to give power to the artist capturing the moment.  Being able to stop time by capturing the action and producing it as a tangible item gives the photographer the authority to witness a subject the way that no one else, including the subject, is able to.  Alfred Eisenstaedt exercises his power in his famous photography of celebrities, landscapes, and other life events.  He photographed a mother and her child sitting together in the depleted landscape of Hiroshima after all of the effects after the explosion of the atom bomb.  The way Eisenstaedt chose to photograph the two leaves the viewer to only the limited focus points of his work giving him power over his audience.

Paper Topic and Introduction

Paper Topic:

In her essay, "Many masks, many selves," Wendy Doniger suggests that self-impersonation or masquerading is a form of self-identification. An account taken from English cutler Thomas Mills in 1618 adds to Doniger's claim by suggesting that entertainment, emotional release and social justice also serve as other means for such self-impersonations in addition to identity of the self.

Introduction:

In conversing with his wife Agnes, a cutler named Thomas Mills provided a detailed account of a typical charivari that took place on May 27th, 1618. Generally, the term charivari referred to a ritualized mechanism of social control, common in England and in surrounding areas in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries; the noisy, chaotic processions enabled the community to express their collective dismay over adulterous relationships, cuckolded husbands, abusers or other social offenders of the like. Mills' description of the events that took place in the small market town of Calne, England illustrate specifically such a procession in which the participants donned masks both as a form of entertainment and emotional release as well as for the depiction of mockery to help serve as a form of community control and social justice. However, in her essay "Many masks, many selves," Wendy Doniger argues that people engage in self-impersonations or masquerading for the sole purpose of self-identification. While Doniger's emphasis on identity of the self does have a certain validity and importance, she still overlooks the idea that the purpose of masquerading may extend beyond identifying and finding ones own self. Therefore, the account provided by Thomas Mills complements Wendy Doniger's thesis regarding self-impersonations by putting forth emotional release and social justice as other rationalizations for the act of masquerading. 

Paper Topic and Introduction

Topic:

Anderson suggests that a nation is an imagined community in which people with no real physical connection maintain a psychological bond--nationalist sentiment--based on their concept of shared nationality, which includes shared language, art, and values; the European anthem extends this claim by broadening the scope of this imagined community: for imagined communities based on the idea of shared culture applies not only to nations, but to regions as well.  Yet, though nationalism and regionalism are similar, they are not identical, a fact which the European anthem may help to illustrate.

Introduction:

Rather like its pre-modern predecessors, a nation is a politically unified group of people who feel a strong psychological bond with each other, not because of any actual acquaintance or genetic relationship, but because of members' belief in a shared history--including language and art--and shared set of values.  The vague yet remarkably strong bond of nationalism among diverse populations is complex and difficult to understand fully.  In Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, Benedict Anderson manages to distill the phenomenon into the concise term "imagined political community" (Anderson 6).  He also asserts that national anthems are a hallmark of nationalism, for singing one's national anthem with one's countrymen creates a physical manifestation of a nation's imagined unity (145).  Yet the European anthem, Ludwig van Beethoven's prelude to his setting of Friedrich Schiller's poem "An der Freude" ("Ode to Joy"), sheds light on an even broader imagined community: the region.  Like nationalism, regionalism is a feeling of belonging to a group of people tied by historical interaction, artistic common ground, and shared values.  Unlike nations, however, regions are not united by language--thus, regional ties are even less concrete than national bonds.  The European anthem illustrates both the similarities and the crucial difference between nationalism and regionalism by utilizing some basic elements of distinctly 'European' art and values, while simultaneously tearing down the language barriers among European nations.

Imagined Communities

Anderson argues that people join together under a singular national identity because of the egalitarian notion that in their struggles for the country, all its peoples will come together as one. "[The nation] is an imagined as a community, because, regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is always conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship" (Anderson 7). This imagined fraternal bond is what causes greatly different peoples to be willing to unite under a single flag in their fight for a goal.

According to Anderson, recent international conflicts are notable in that they have been driven by nationalistic ideals. "The great wars of this century are extraordinary not so much in the unprecedented scale on which they permitted people to kill, as in the colossal numbers persuaded to lay down their lives" (Anderson 144). To Anderson, this idea of nationalism as a primary cause of military service is a relatively new one.

Anderson Quotes

In Anderson's essay "Imagined Communities" explains the presence of non-physical communities, but communities that exist in the mind set of the public. These communities relate to various catergories such as race and politics. Catergories such as these affect the nation and cause Anderson to propose her own definition of what is a nation.

"...it is an imagined political community- and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign."

Anderson is explaining though millions of people coexist in the same political structure, members of a nations government will nevewr know everybody personally. Instead of the individual, politics has lead to view society in large numbers and groups because finding similar traits and opinions in groups will cover all individuals. Thus this imagined community of individuals has changed into a community of groups.


Along with politics, race is one of the biggest categories (communities) because this nation thrives on its diversity. Anderson explains that race has been a big benefit to this growing nation we live in. It fuses people from different backgrounds and introduces a different aspect to life such as languages and songs. Nationalism has been the area where this diverse "melting pot" has produce several things such as Anderson explains in this quote.

"The cultural products of nationalism- poetry, prose fiction, music, plastic arts- show this love very clearly in thousands of different forms and styles."

Through national anthems, art and other sub groups that define a culture, these imaginative communities of people defined by politics tend to morph with each other because of the understanding and accepting attitudes of the public.