First, read Sontag's essay "In Plato's Cave." On page 8, Sontag refers to photography as "mainly a social rite, a defense against anxiety, and a tool of power" for most people.
Read and examine the photographs by Ilisa Katz Rissman. How do these photographs embody that concept of photography as social rite or defense against anxiety? In your explanation/analysis (that should be at least a paragraph), use at least one additional quote from Sontag's essay.
Finally, send me (via email) a photograph that you have taken that functions as a social rite or defense against anxiety. You don't need to explain the context of the photograph, but you do need to give it a title. I am going to post these photographs to the blog, so don't send me anything you don't feel comfortable sharing with the world.
The photographs by Ilisa Katz Rissman embody the concept of photography as a social rite by capturing her children and children of her friends in natural moments. Her social rite is a familial one and her goal in her photographs was to capture the adolescents in their most real moments. On page 8, Sontag states that "through photographs, each family constructs a portrait chronicle of itself". She also adds, "It hardly matters what activities are photographed so long as photographs get taken and are cherished". The adolescents are captured and constructed in Katz Rissman's photographs as natural and vulnerable. They are not captured performing a certain activity. They are captured in their truest form.
ReplyDeleteThe photographs by Ilisa Katz Rissman embody the concept of photography as a social rite because she incorporates her children in her photography. She photographs her children, and the children of friends, in a natural way. The photos that Rissman takes are more than just pictures of teenagers, but the pictures depict emotion or lack thereof. On page 8, Sontag writes "cameras go with family life." This is particularly true for Rissman. Rissman implies that social media distorts the truth of photography, leading her to snap photos of her children in their natural ways making the images more intimate and honest.
ReplyDeleteThe photographs by Ilisa Katz Rissman illustrates photography as a social rite. Her work is more than simply capturing snapshots of her children but rather capturing images with a purpose. She has carefully and thoughtfully crafted what the she is trying to convey without the embellished styles commonly seen in other works. Susan Sontag indicates "photographs give people imaginary possession of a past that is unreal, they also help people to take possession of space in which they are insecure." Rissman is capturing her children in a natural state. These images will eventually be representative of the memories. It is quiet possible Rissman is assisting in developing her children's emotional intelligence by capturing them in the most realistic manner during what is probably known as the most vulnerable time in a young persons life.
ReplyDeleteIlisa Katz Rissman’s photographs serve as a defense against anxiety because she is photographing her subjects and trying to hold on to the fleeting youth of the moment. Katz Rissman knows that you can never get that time back and I think that she wants to treasure it. Knowing that children are constantly growing and aging can cause such anxiety for parents and by taking pictures you are freezing that moment in time forever. Sontag says “time eventually positions most photographs, even the most amateurish, at the level of art” (pg. 21) and I agree wholeheartedly. So often we take pictures on our phones and can instantly see how they look. More often than not people do not like the picture initially, but as time goes by we can look back on those photographs with fondness and see them for the artistic pieces of work that they are.
ReplyDeleteThe photographs by Ilisa Katz Rissman embody the concept of photography as a social rite or defense against anxiety because she is using photography on her children to help them and herself. Katz started taking pictures of her children since they were babies. Since she took pictures of them as they aged through life, it has created this comfort with using pictures as a way to comprehend her encounters in motherhood. Katz stated that she viewed her photographs as “a way of connecting with her family and as a reflection of different emotions over time.” In this sense, she is trying to understand her children through the photograph, not just simply create a fine work of art. It is a way to get an easy glimpse of her children and analyze them in a way that is not usual. As Susan Sontag states, “To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s mortality, vulnerability, mutability” (pg. 15). Whatever message illuminating through the image will always remain there to be seen and felt. These photographs are a door to the underlying emotions within her children. They also allow the children to reflect upon themselves. They can see what others see about themselves, which brings on a whole new perspective in their life.
ReplyDeleteAnalysis of the photographs taken by Ilisa Katz Rissman suggests both the concepts of photography as a social rite, and that of a defense against anxiety. Rissman captures the true essence of her children, their emotions, and the notion of family in order to create and have a story of their own to tell: "each family constructs a portrait-chronical of itself (Sontag, 8)". This story is cherished by Rissman, as it is filled with memories that can not be exactly relived; with these photographs, she aims to hold on to all experiences with her children by translating them into images. Sontag explains that through photographs "we can hold the whole world in our heads (3)," yet this can be problematic as it is related to nostalgia. Nostalgia can cause anxiety as one longs for the past, typically for a time or place which contains positive personal associations. As Sontag describes photographs as "memento mori", the photographs Rissman has captured can be interpreted as a reminder that these moments and her children will disappear, and these captured moments are her way of never forgetting and holding on to what she values. Through photographs, she remembers her children and holds a relationship to the past as "a photograph is both a psuedo-presence and a token of absence (Sontag, 16)"; these memories help relieve anxiety and achieve a calm mental state.
ReplyDeleteThe photographs taken by Ilisa Katz Rissman embody the concept of photography as a social rite by taking photos of her children and friend’s children and photographing them spontaneously. Rissman discusses the photographs as “real life moments.” She captures honesty and the moments in life she wants to remember through her camera lens, as her point of view. Susan Sontag states, “Photography becomes a rite of family life…photography came along to memorialize, to restate symbolically, the imperiled continuity and vanishing extendedness of family life” (pg. 8-9). Rissman takes photos of her children in these vulnerable states, states of pureness, of them in their honest selves. She creates memories to last forever.
ReplyDeleteThe photographs by Ilisa Katz Rissman embody the concept of photography as a social rite by taking photos of her children at any random time she wants. Risen likes to photograph them in their rare form. I thought it was interesting when she said on page 8 "most households have a camera, but a household with children is twice as likely to have at least one camera as a household in which there are no children". That was interesting to me because now I actually realize that it is true... When I was growing up my parents were always taking pictures of my brother and I. But when we would go to my aunts house, who did not have children, she would never take pictures.. She now has two children and probably owns about four cameras and documents every event with a hundred pictures. I agree with Rissman that photos really are memories that last a lifetime
ReplyDeleteIn the photographs that we were given to examine they all have one thing in common, they were all taken to capture a memory that will later be reminisced on. “Photographs give people an imaginary possession of a past that is unreal, they also help people to take possession of space in which they are insecure (page 9)”. When children are little, many don’t understand why their parents just can’t stop taking picture of them, little do they know their parents are trying to capture every moment so that when their children have grown up they are able to reminisce on a time when they weren’t so big. The act of trying to create an imaginary possession of the past can be displayed in the very first photograph of the two boys standing side by side. These boys will not always be that little but they will always have that picture of when they were. All of these photographs embody the concept of photography as a social rite because Ilisa Katz Rissman captures children regardless of what they are doing, to capture the memory. Another quote that I found very interesting was Sontag stated that “not to take pictures of one’s children, particularly when they are small, is a sign of parental indifference (page 8). When my mom shows me my old baby pictures I am oddly comforted in the fact that she loved me that much to capture every moment of my childhood.
ReplyDeleteIlisa Katz Rissman's photographs embody photography as a social as she captures her children in a natural state, thus cherishing who they are right in that moment of time. In her explanation she states “So they couldn’t tell me I was messing up. … I was able to use the camera and try to connect with that sense of being a new mother while trying to figure out what I was doing.” With this statement Ilisa resonates with the idea that photography itself is a social rite especially with respect to families in that it was something that made her connect with her own motherhood. Mothers are notorious for constantly taking pictures of their children, even when the children don't want or really need any pictures taken; it's just something they do. Photographing their children is a social rite of mothers and, in a way, is a form of endearment as Sontag touches on on page 8. She states, "Not to take pictures of one's children, particularly when they are small, is a sign of parental indifference, just as not turning up for one's graduation picture is a gesture of adolescent rebellion." With this statement Sontag reflects on the idea that mothers take pictures of their children as a way to cherish them, much like we take pictures of other experiences so that we can reflect on and cherish those memories.
ReplyDeleteIn the photographs by Ilisa Katz Rissman, she embodies them as a social rite and defense against anxiety. She captures photos of her children and her friend's children in a vulnerable and imperfection state. She embraces motherhood as it naturally is and captures it in that moment. Rissman emphasizes how things are much prettier when they are captured in their moment of time and not "sugar-coated". Sontag believes that capturing photographs of your children is necessary as they are growing up. Sontag stated that "through photographs, each family constructs a portrait-chronicle of itself- a portable kit of images that bears witness to its connectedness", which shows the trueness of the family(pg.8). Photographs show the closeness of the family and captures moments in our lives that we cherish. Sontag strongly emphasized that photos are much more valuable then that moment in time because you can pause and value that moment in life.
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The photographs by Ilisa Katz Rissman embody the concept of photography as a social rite by just kind of going with the flow and capturing pictures with her dear children. She wanted to make sure she was able to take those photos of them not only to look back, but because it is a great deal of significance to her personally. It gives her social rite to take pictures of her family. A quote that I found to be very appealing is “To collect photographs is to collect the world”. Taking picture of what happens in life is something that I personally do. I feel as though if someone was to go through the pictures that I have they could see my world through pictures. You have all these pictures that you have taken and you collect them over time, it starts to build more and more memories which those memories make up your world.
ReplyDeleteThe photographs taken by Ilisa Katz Rissman embody that concept of photography as a social rite because she is capturing her children and friends’ children in natural moments they experience as teenagers and adolescents, including feeling vulnerable or unhappy. Rissman expresses that she uses these photographs to create honesty as they are real pictures that aren’t staged and done up like many photographs are. On page 15 Sontag writes, “To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability”. Rissman also mentions that she uses the photographs of her children to reflect back on the emotions present at that time and how they change from time to time. The photographs Rissman takes are very real and being the photographer, she gets to experience these real moments with her children and friends’ children.
ReplyDeleteThe photographs taken by Ilisa Katz Rissman embody the concept of photography as a social rite because she has captured her children and their friends in the most natural of moments. The pictures were taken without any staging or "filters" like pictures now commonly do. There is something beautiful in pictures that are not planned because you catch the raw emotions, the vulnerability, and capture a memory forever. Katz Rissman's reasons and intentions for the photographs is what really makes the photographs as deep and meaningful as they are, "...she began to see the work as a way of connecting with her family and as a reflection of different emotions over time." Like Susan Sontag says "The photograph is a thin slice of space as well as time" (page 22). Russian's photographs are prime examples of how photography is a slice of time.
ReplyDeleteThe photographs by Ilisa Katz Rissman embody the concept of photography as a social rite because she has captured her children and friend’s children at a vulnerable state. Rissman captured her subjects in an unstaged view, which is much like others may see these children in a real-life setting. “To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them they can never have; it turns people into objects that can symbolically be possessed” (Sontag, 14). These photographs reiterate the idea of photography being a social rite in the aspect that they have captured evidence of a particular moment, or particular time frame. As most mothers do, Rissman emphasizes focus on capturing childhood memories so that they may not be lost. These photographs provide a familial connectedness to the past and to memoirs as real moments.
ReplyDeleteThe photographs that Ilisa Katz Rissman represent the idea of photography as a social rite because these pictures are real in a sense that there are not fixed or edited. They embody fun, happiness, family, love, and excitement. The photographs were captured with no one posing and getting ready to smile. Time was happening and creating memories, so getting a candid picture can capture the real emotion. Sontag states, "Photographed images do not seem to be statements about the world so much as pieces of it, miniatures of reality that anyone can make or acquire" (page 4). Photographs are a piece of evidence that something happened at someplace and at a certain time of the year. Rissman's goal was to capture a photo where it wouldn't be planned, so that when one looks back to it, it can be a remembrance of how someone was feeling that day or what exactly was going on. That is the goal when taking a photograph.
ReplyDeleteThe photographs taken by Ilsa Katz Rissman demonstrate the love and passion that she possesses both for her children and photography. The photos embody the concept of photography as a defense against society because they exemplify a moment captured in real time, not posed or staged, and express family and love. She captures the different stages that her children are going through whether it’s a period of vulnerability or time of strength. Regardless, the photographs taken encapsulate candid moments in her children’s lives. I genuinely liked a specific quote from Susan Sontag: “Photographs may be more memorable than moving images, because they are a neat slice of time, not a flow” (17). Although she continues on to talk about television, the quote still relates to Rissman’s photos because it acknowledges the fact that those pictures will always allow Rissman to reminisce on that specific occasion and go back to that “neat slice of time”. Sontag maintains this theme of family togetherness and immobilizing time throughout the first chapter and it is undoubtedly seen in the photographs taken by Rissman.
ReplyDeleteIn her pictures, Ilisa Katz Rissman, embodies that concept of photography as a social because she captures her children at their most pure selves. Her motive wasn't just to take pictures of her children, it was to capture those moments when her children where being their true selves. As she says they were not always cooperative and would give their thoughts in hopes she wouldn't take those unwanted pictures. As Sontag says on page [7] "those occasions when the taking of photographs is relatively undiscriminating, promiscuous, or self-effacing do not lessen the didacticism of the whole enterprise; which shows that her family photographs' interpretations were undiscriminating because they were taken when her children were at any moment in life. Which implies that her family portraits did not lessen the meaning of the photographs or the message she was trying to give.
ReplyDeleteThe photographs embody that concept of photography as social rite because it captures that specific moment in time. Whether the temperature is hot or cold, whether the moment is dull or exciting, or whether it is day or night. The picture holds meaning to the person capturing that moment and to those viewing it. On page 11, Sontag writes: "A photograph is not just the result of an encounter between an event and a photographer; picture-taking is an even in itself, and one with the ever more peremptory right-- to interfere with, to invaded, or to ignore whatever is going on. For example, a parent taking a picture of their child crying. They are ignoring the child's emotions to capture the event. Photographs show us a history of the past and if the photographer was to get involved, that changes the history of the event being captured.
ReplyDeleteThe photographs taken by Ilisa Katz Rissman embody the concept of photography as social rite and as defense against anxiety. Sontag says that tourists use photography in order to sooth and assuage the general feelings of disorientation that they are likely to be exacerbated by travel. Rissman deals with her anxiety of being a new mother in pretty much the same way tourists deal with anxiety, through a camera. According to Rissman, she was able to use the camera and try to connect with that sense of being a new mother while trying to figure out what she was doing (Sontang, 9). Rissman also uses the photography as a social rite since she uses it to connect with her family through photography. Photography further strengthens the relationship between Rissman and her children since she decided to create beautiful images but also wanted something more that resonated on a slightly deeper level. She prefers film cameras since taking photographs by this medium requires a lot of observation and examination and you cannot simply pull the camera out of your pocket and take a snapshot, it requires a complete process and in order to obtain the best results you must have thoughtfully crafted your photograph.
ReplyDeleteIlisa Katz Rissman photographed her children at vulnerable stages of their development. As a mother, Ilisa is allowed to commemorate their growth by photographing varies stages of their life. Ilisa Katz Rissman's photography embodies this social rite by capturing the importance of a moment in her life and her child's life, and like most parents, photographing their children is a social rite because it endorses connections between subject and photographer. This connectedness is posed by the realness of her work. The rawness of her photography is ceremonial, yet pure in intentions. She displays her children in their truest form. Sontag writes, "To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge - and, therefore, like power" (p. 4). Relating oneself to a moment in time gives significance to the individual noting and photographing a subject or scene. Stronger connections between oneself and their artwork empower the photographer to find or create meaning between the lens and what is being photographed. Rissman found meaning in her children and captured that meaning in their development.
ReplyDeleteThe photographs taken by Ilisa Katz Rissman embody that concept of photography as social rite or defense against anxiety. She photographs pictures of her children and other children in natural and raw moments that you would see them in on a day to day basis in a natural setting. On page 8, Sontag states “it hardly matters what activities are photographed as long as photographs get taken are cherished”. Rissman sees the natural essence in children and brings out that our through photography. She is able to capture children in a relaxed setting, where they are vulnerable, and at ease and that is when you see the children in the most natural way.
ReplyDeletePhotographs taken by Ilisa Katz Rissman suggests both the concepts of photography as a social rite, and that of a defense against anxiety. In Rissmas photgraphy we see the essence of children. She describes her photographs as a "real life moment." Sontag writes, "A photograph is not just the result of an encounter between an event and a photographer; picture-taking is an event in itself, and one with ever more peremptory rights- to interfere with, to invade, or to ignore whatever is going on" (pg.11). Photography is not simply taking a picture, but something meaningful in which the photographer is finding itself.
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ReplyDeleteKatz Rissman shows her way of using a defense against anxiety, and a tool of power by continuously taking random photographs of her children and friends of her children. Rissman takes these photographs at different time spans of her children's lifes as " a way of connecting with her family and as a reflection of different emotions over time. In Sontang's essay it mentions how "through photography each family can construct a portrait chronicle of itself a portable kit of images that beats wutness ti it's connectedness' (pg.8).Rissman's connectedness with her family through these photographs show how her children are her way of dealing with a defense against anxiety.
ReplyDeleteThe photographs taken by Ilisa Katz Rissman demonstrates how she has used the power of taking pictures as a defense against anxiety or a social rite. She explains how she found that taking pictures of her children and her friends' children helped her ease the anxiety of becoming a new mother. Susan Sontag mentions in her essay that "taking pictures is soothing, and assuages general feelings of disorientation that are likely exacerbated by travel" (pg.10). Rissman uses her photographs as a way to sooth her feelings of anxiety as well as a way to connect with her family. It is not only the photographs but her children who are helping her with the defense against her own anxiety.
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