Parsons, S., 2009. Sontag’s Lament: Emotion, Ethics, and Photography. Photography & culture, 2(3), pp.289–302.
“Abstract:
Rare is the discussion of ethics and photography that
does not reference Susan Sontag’s groundbreaking
collection of essays On Photography (1977). It was this
accessible, sweeping book, quietly infused with the ideas
of Barthes and Benjamin, which presented one of the
first comprehensive explorations of the ethical challenges
posed by the ubiquity of photography in a consumerist
society. Sontag’s arguments about the power and danger
of photography to anesthetize its viewers are well
accepted in relation to photojournalism and documentary
although they were modified somewhat in her 2003
Regarding the Pain of Others. This article considers the
complex ways Sontag linked photography, emotion, and
ethics with particular focus on her scathing critique of
Diane Arbus’s work.”
“Elsewhere in the text, Sontag argues that in order for photographs to link emotions like those she had in the face of the Holocaust photographs to morality, and in order for these emotions to awaken the conscience, viewers must already have a context in which to place them. She argues that: “what determines the possibility of being affected morally by photographs is the existence of a relevant political consciousness. Without a politics, photographs of the slaughter-bench of history will most likely be experienced as, simply, unreal or as a demoralizing emotional blow” (Sontag 1977: 19).”
It is important to make sure the audience already know the context or background ideas when they view my project.
Anger Photography 