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Photographs Of My Mother By Susan Sontag Summary

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In the essay “Why We Take Pictures,” Susan Sontag states that pictures can be used as a “tool of power” and a “defense against anxiety” (Sontag 353). She states that the reason photographs can be a tool of power is that they “give people an imaginary possession of a past that is unreal” (Sontag 354). For example, family uses photographs as a way to connect with its extended relatives, even though the idea of a large family is slowly vanished in this current culture. Another way for pictures to give people a sense of power is the ability to “take possession of space” (Sontag 354). Sontag mentions that family members take photographs because they want to capture the precious and important occasions such as high school graduations or weddings. …show more content…

In the essay “Photographs of My Mother,” Kingston describes her experience and observations as she views her mother’s old pictures. When Kingston looks at her mother’s graduation photos, she feels like her mother is staring ahead “as if she can see” Kingston and her “grandchildren and grandchildren’s grandchildren” (Kingston 390). The pictures capture her mother’s proudest moment when she was graduating. Kingston’s mother manipulates the pictures so she can convey her message to her descendants that they can be successful like she did. In this case, the picture gives her the power to shape the reality into her own. Just like Kingston, I have seen many times how reality is changed through pictures. For example, when young people are going through a breakup, most are in emotional distress so they usually post pictures to show that they are doing fine and able to move one. Those pictures are usually taken with friends, or alone while going out to prove that after an ended relationship, people can still be confident and have a good time. Moreover, many young people delete the pictures that they took with their past partners on social media as a way to erase the old relationships. Even when the break up still affects their emotions, they create their own reality through pictures, and that gives them a sense of control over their

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Janie describes those “pictures” as “crayon enlargements of life” (p.81). The poverty represented in them is contrasted and replaced by humor. Indeed, the images such has the sides of the mule serving as a wash-board, or its bones used as a hanger are comical enough to forget the sadness of this hungry animal. The porch is then reserved for “big-picture talkers”, and Janie likes how they “pass around the pictures of their thoughts for the others to look at and see […] (p.81). Within this space, the storytellers exhibit their creative capacities and our protagonist would like to share with them.

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Throughout history, photographs have been known to depict and represent culture, character, information, and ideology. Through specific elements of form, and close scrutiny, photographs give a representation of the “bigger picture” by providing content and invaluable information that text, on its own, does not produce. Dr. Carol Payne, a professor of art history at Carleton University, wrote an essay in 2012 for the Oxford University Press. This essay focused on the relationships between photographic images, Canadian culture and identity, and indigenous people. Her thesis was to discuss how an image can present a sense of national identity (Carol Payne 310).

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The narrator says the twins look like their mother and in that second, she realizes the family culture within her, which she did not understand before. She watches the photos together with her sisters, “eager to see what develops” (173). This is a wonderful part of the story, not only the quality of photos has changed, their family connection also develops. The people in the photos become closer and closer.

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As a photographer myself, the theory of punctum is not unknown to me; however, the application of the concept of punctum towards the perfomativity of a photograph is unchartered territory. The photograph I chose to analyze is Dorothea Lange’s renowned portrait Migrant Mother, which is a Great Depression-era photograph featuring a migrant farmer, and is among the most famous photographs from this turbulent chapter of American history. The raw emotion in the mother’s face, paired with her body language and grimy appearance, captivates viewers; however, it is not the mother that makes this image so powerful to me, but rather, the turned away children framing their mother. This detail adds a new dimension to the portrait for me.

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Just as Sontag emphasises in her essay, photography is useful tool that captures the memories, defenses against anxiety, and brings familiarity. In additional, personally I also believe that photos can empower the world by sharing

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My mom, my sweet, gentle mom. My mom is like my sister, we love to talk about juicy stuff and love to share with each other what we did during the day. I don 't like to imagine myself without her because she is basically my life. She is caring and kind and always have a smile on her face when she sees me. When I say her name I get a picture of her in my mind.

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