Much of what Sontag said in the late 70's is relevant today although the ambiguities found throughout the book means that it is possible to find support for any point of view considered today. The cultural element that leads us to interpret images in an unique way remains as true today as it was when Sontag was writing. Whilst camera technology has changed almost out of recognition in the past 40 years the photographer has not. We still make decisions at the time of taking that support our view of what should, and equally importantly, should not be in the photograph. Whether we consciously seek the 'proper moment' or the 'decisive moment' is probably not known, even to ourselves, but we will go to extraordinary lengths to get the 'righ't light, the 'right' elements and the 'right' action to ensure, as far as possible, the 'right' image. We remain the 'deciders' about our photography albeit we do not make the final judgement about its worthiness.
How we view images has also changed over the years. It is true to say that the majority of photographs are not seen as prints. The most common viewing is on a digital device that emphasises the transient nature of what we are seeing. We can flick through literally hundreds of images; only pausing now and again to look longer at a particular image. There is no direct physical contact with a tangible thing so that there is no sense other than sight involved in what we are doing. Sontag talks in her book of photographs becoming more beautiful as they become older as though the passage of time and the 'patina' they acquire through handling bestows upon them an additional element. She even praises the creasing and scratches and the fading and the shift in colour that occurs in photographs. None of these things can be experienced through the medium of the computer. A photograph will remain as it is on every showing until we can no longer view it because of its outdated technology.
There is also the impact upon our thinking of an image that offers a glimpse of a past that we have not experienced or only vaguely remember or a reminder of relatives long dead - a glimpse into our place in life's continuum. Such impact can also be created by viewing on a digital device but there is the very real risk that the sheer volume of images and the existence of moving images on DVD's or other storage will condition us to ignore the still image.
As viewers we are increasingly becoming immune to the shock value of an image whether it be beauty or horror. We are surrounded on all sides by images that initially shocked and then became commonplace. Pictures of starving children on the African continent are part of the daily fare served up in newsreels, adverts and commercial breaks. They are rapidly becoming that most dreadful fate for all that we see - wallpaper. The horror of war impinges less and less upon our emotions as the level of horror shown on our television screens becomes ever more horrific. Sometimes I wonder if the films shot at the end of the Second World War of the victims of the concentration camps which show shocked our forebears would raise an eyebrow in the present generation. Our culture is changing and so is the way that we interpret images but it remains the case that we continue to interpret photographs through the distorting lens of this culture.
It is difficult to imagine a time in the future when all the controversies that surround photography together with the desire of photographers to glorify their work (is it art or is it not art? - a question that is unanswerable because there is no universally accepted definition) have disappeared. As long as human beings are both the producers and consumers of photographs the controversy will happily continue. Whilst it is possible to imagine photographs being created by robotic beings who apply strict logic (think of the cameras today that take much of the decision making away from the human operator) as long as human beings are the arbiters of taste then the arguments and endless books discussing the subject will continue.
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