Chapter 6 Summary and Analysis

Sontag posits that ideas of war and peace have changed; peace is now considered the norm rather than the exception. She sees the history of war as a male-dominated affair, recorded by pitiless artistry intent on capturing the savagery of battle. Sontag asserts that modern viewers would be hesitant to call war photography "beautiful," even though the act of representation can, in her opinion, create beauty from something horrible. Modern viewers, however, are not comfortable with the transformative power of artistry. They would prefer photographs to stand as an objective record.

Motion pictures base their aesthetics on photographs. This, in turn, undermines the veracity of the photo by making it seem like a still from a movie. Similarly, some critics decry beautiful photography as inauthentic, too artistic to be a true record of life. Sontag refers specifically to the works of...