--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: A photograph comes into being, as it is…" description: "\"A photograph comes into being, as it is seen, all at once.\" — Susan Sontag" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fa0/susan-sontag-332_inspirational_a-photograph-comes-into-being-as-it-is-s_1933968.jpg" --- # A photograph comes into being, as it is seen, all at once. ![“A photograph comes into being, as it is seen, all at once.” quote by Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fa0/susan-sontag-332_inspirational_a-photograph-comes-into-being-as-it-is-s_1933968.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fa0/susan-sontag-332_inspirational_a-photograph-comes-into-being-as-it-is-s_1933968.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fa0/susan-sontag-332_inspirational_a-photograph-comes-into-being-as-it-is-s_1933968.jpg) > “A photograph comes into being, as it is seen, all at once.” [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. A photograph captures the whole scene in a single instant, shaping perception instantly. **In simple terms:** Photos freeze a moment instantly. Key Takeaway Recognize the power of instant visual framing. Themes perception visual art truth Mood reflective critical Type analytical philosophical When to use this quote - journalism - advertising - personal memory - art criticism Key Concepts phenomenology representation media theory Questions to Reflect On - How does immediacy affect truth? - What is left out in a single shot? A Different Perspective A single frame may omit context and nuance. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Comes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/comes/) [Comes Seen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/comes-seen-3042961/) [Inspirational](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/inspirational/) [Love](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/love/) [Photograph](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/photograph/) [Photograph Comes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/photograph-comes-668354/) [Photography](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/photography/) [Seen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/seen/) ## Related quotes > [The poignancy of a photograph comes from looking back to a fleeting moment in a floating world. The transitoriness is what creates the sense…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/allen-ginsberg/the-poignancy-of-a-photograph-comes-from-looking-back-to-a-fleeting/) [Allen Ginsberg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/allen-ginsberg/) > [To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/to-photograph-people-is-to-violate-them-by-seeing-them-as-they-never/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [While a painting, even one that meets photographic standards of resemblance, is never more than the stating of an interpretation, a photograph is never…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/while-a-painting-even-one-that-meets-photographic-standards-of/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Photographs objectify: they turn an event or a person into something that can be possessed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-objectify-they-turn-an-event-or-a-person-into-something/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [To take a photograph is to participate in another person's mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/to-take-a-photograph-is-to-participate-in-another-person-s-mortality/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Travel becomes a strategy for accumulating photographs.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/travel-becomes-a-strategy-for-accumulating-photographs/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Any photograph has multiple meanings: indeed, to see something in the form of a photograph is to encounter a potential object of fascination. The…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/any-photograph-has-multiple-meanings-indeed-to-see-something-in-the/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Knowing a great deal about what is in the world art, catastrophe, the beauties of nature through photographic images, people are frequently disappointed, surprised,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/knowing-a-great-deal-about-what-is-in-the-world-art-catastrophe-the/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [photographs alter and enlarge our notions of what is worth looking at and what we have a right to observe. They are a grammar…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-alter-and-enlarge-our-notions-of-what-is-worth-looking-at/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Photographs are a way of imprisoning reality, understood as recalcitrant, inaccessible; of making it stand still. One can't possess reality, one can possess (and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-are-a-way-of-imprisoning-reality-understood-as/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [A photograph is not only an image (as a painting is an image), an interpretation of the real; it is also a trace, something…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/a-photograph-is-not-only-an-image-as-a-painting-is-an-image-an/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Life is a movie; death is a photograph.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/life-is-a-movie-death-is-a-photograph/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Photographs trade simultaneously on the prestige of art and the magic of the real.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-trade-simultaneously-on-the-prestige-of-art-and-the-magic/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [So successful has been the camera's role in beautifying the world that photographs, rather than the world, have become the standard of the beautiful.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/so-successful-has-been-the-camera-s-role-in-beautifying-the-world/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [I used to go out wearing any old rubbish, no make-up, nothing, but since mobile phones, that has all had to stop. People do…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joanna-lumley/i-used-to-go-out-wearing-any-old-rubbish-no-make-up-nothing-but-since/) [Joanna Lumley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joanna-lumley/) ## More by Susan Sontag > [the appetite for thinking must be regulated, as all sensible people know, for it may stifle one's life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-appetite-for-thinking-must-be-regulated-as-all-sensible-people/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [We are ruled by quotations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/we-are-ruled-by-quotations/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Unfortunately, moral beauty in art - like physical beauty in a person - is extremely perishable. It is nowhere so durable as artistic or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/unfortunately-moral-beauty-in-art-like-physical-beauty-in-a-person-is/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Like the collector, the photographer is animated by a passion that, even when it appears to be for the present, is linked to a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/like-the-collector-the-photographer-is-animated-by-a-passion-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [ Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject… \[The anthropologist\] submits himself to the exotic to confirm his own inner… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-an-intense-fascinated/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [“Why not eliminate schooling between age 12-16? It’s biologically + psychologically too turbulent a time to be cooped up inside, made to sit all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/why-not-eliminate-schooling-between-age-12-16-it-s-biologically/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/to-photograph-people-is-to-violate-them-by-seeing-them-as-they-never/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [One set of messages of the society we live in is: Consume. Grow. Do what you want. Amuse yourselves. The very working of this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/one-set-of-messages-of-the-society-we-live-in-is-consume-grow-do-what/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Currently intellectuals in Western Europe and North America are extremely demoralized and shaken by the rise of a virulent conservative tendency (which some have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/currently-intellectuals-in-western-europe-and-north-america-are/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [With the modern diseases (once TB, now cancer) the romantic idea that the disease expresses the character is invariably extended to assert that the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/with-the-modern-diseases-once-tb-now-cancer-the-romantic-idea-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [As objects of contemplation, images of the atrocious can answer to several different needs. To steel oneself against weakness. To make oneself more numb.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/as-objects-of-contemplation-images-of-the-atrocious-can-answer-to/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The creative phase of an idea coincides with the period during which it insists, cantankerously, on its boundaries, on what makes it different; but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-creative-phase-of-an-idea-coincides-with-the-period-during-which/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Photographs objectify: they turn an event or a person into something that can be possessed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-objectify-they-turn-an-event-or-a-person-into-something/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [I'm not interested in giving aid and comfort to the neo­-Conservatives.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/i-m-not-interested-in-giving-aid-and-comfort-to-the-neo-conservatives/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The feminist movement has been important to me because it's made me feel less odd and also because it has made me understand some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-feminist-movement-has-been-important-to-me-because-it-s-made-me/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Explore all 644 Susan Sontag quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## More Comes quotes > [Being beautiful comes naturally!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/being-beautiful-comes-naturally/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [All comedy comes from a dark place.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katt-williams/all-comedy-comes-from-a-dark-place/) [Katt Williams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katt-williams/) > [I have too many options when it comes to guitars.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rick-nielsen/i-have-too-many-options-when-it-comes-to-guitars/) [Rick Nielsen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rick-nielsen/) > [“Every invention comes through anxiousness.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rakesh-wadhwani/every-invention-comes-through-anxiousness/) [Rakesh Wadhwani](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rakesh-wadhwani/) > [If it comes, it comes, but its not like a main focus. If you go looking for something youre never gone find what youre…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/akon/if-it-comes-it-comes-but-its-not-like-a-main-focus-if-you-go-looking/) [Akon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/akon/) > [the joy that you give to others is the joy that comes back to you](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-greenleaf-whittier/the-joy-that-you-give-to-others-is-the-joy-that-comes-back-to-you/) [John Greenleaf Whittier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-greenleaf-whittier/) > [Nothing good comes on a platter of gold](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/nothing-good-comes-on-a-platter-of-gold/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Country comes before politics.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jerry-springer/country-comes-before-politics/) [Jerry Springer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jerry-springer/) > [“When it's clear that we have a commitment to God that comes before anything else in our lives, most people will respect us even…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/craig-groeschel/when-it-s-clear-that-we-have-a-commitment-to-god-that-comes-before/) [Craig Groeschel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/craig-groeschel/) > [Take each day as it comes. New day, new start, start fresh.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/take-each-day-as-it-comes-new-day-new-start-start-fresh/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Every storm that comes also comes to an end.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/all-time-low/every-storm-that-comes-also-comes-to-an-end/) [All Time Low](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/all-time-low/) > [“freedom comes with understand who you are..”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/semanyenzi-richard/freedom-comes-with-understand-who-you-are/) [Semanyenzi Richard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/semanyenzi-richard/) > [So when it comes don't push it away. One day you will find it is the greatest gift and I hope you don't take…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vivian-green/so-when-it-comes-don-t-push-it-away-one-day-you-will-find-it-is-the/) [Vivian Green](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/vivian-green/) > [Everything comes to me while I'm sitting on the pot.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eddie-van-halen/everything-comes-to-me-while-i-m-sitting-on-the-pot/) [Eddie Van Halen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eddie-van-halen/) > [Man goes nowhere. Everything comes to man, like tomorrow.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/antonio-porchia/man-goes-nowhere-everything-comes-to-man-like-tomorrow/) [Antonio Porchia](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/antonio-porchia/) [Browse all 1,184 Comes quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/comes/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "A photograph comes into being, as it is seen, all at once.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Susan Sontag" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/a-photograph-comes-into-being-as-it-is-seen-all-at-once/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Comes" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/a-photograph-comes-into-being-as-it-is-seen-all-at-once/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fa0/susan-sontag-332_inspirational_a-photograph-comes-into-being-as-it-is-s_1933968.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fa0/susan-sontag-332_inspirational_a-photograph-comes-into-being-as-it-is-s_1933968.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fa0/susan-sontag-332_inspirational_a-photograph-comes-into-being-as-it-is-s_1933968.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“A photograph comes into being, as it is seen, all at once.” — Susan Sontag", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Susan Sontag", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "A photograph comes into being, as...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/a-photograph-comes-into-being-as-it-is-seen-all-at-once/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/a-photograph-comes-into-being-as-it-is-seen-all-at-once/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```