--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: A way of certifying experience, taking…" description: "\"A way of certifying experience, taking photographs is also a way of refusing it - by limiting experience to a search for the photogenic, by converting ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8db/susan-sontag-332_converting_a-way-of-certifying-experience-taking-ph_2750201.jpg" --- # A way of certifying experience, taking photographs is also… ![“A way of certifying experience, taking photographs is also a way of refusing it - by limiting experience to a search for the photogenic, by converting experience into an image, a souvenir. Travel becomes a strategy for accumulating photographs.” quote by Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8db/susan-sontag-332_converting_a-way-of-certifying-experience-taking-ph_2750201.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8db/susan-sontag-332_converting_a-way-of-certifying-experience-taking-ph_2750201.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8db/susan-sontag-332_converting_a-way-of-certifying-experience-taking-ph_2750201.jpg) > “A way of certifying experience, taking photographs is also a way of refusing it - by limiting experience to a search for the photogenic, by converting experience into an image, a souvenir. Travel becomes a strategy for accumulating photographs.” [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. Photographs can limit experience by turning moments into images, turning travel into a photo‑collecting habit. **In simple terms:** Images can replace lived experience. Key Takeaway Live beyond the lens. Themes technology culture travel Mood reflective critical Type cultural philosophical When to use this quote - vacations - social media - memory keeping Key Concepts media theory authenticity Questions to Reflect On - How does photography shape perception? - Can you travel without photos? A Different Perspective Images also preserve memories. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Experience](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/experience/) [Photography](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/photography/) [Souvenirs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/souvenirs/) [Strategy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/strategy/) [Travel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/travel/) ## Related quotes > [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/) > [Should you be a teenager blessed with uncommon good looks, document this state of affairs by the taking of photographs. It is the only…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fran-lebowitz/should-you-be-a-teenager-blessed-with-uncommon-good-looks-document/) [Fran Lebowitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fran-lebowitz/) > [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/) > [Photographs are a way of imprisoning reality, understood as recalcitrant, inaccessible; of making it stand still. Or they enlarge a reality that is felt…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-are-a-way-of-imprisoning-reality-understood-as-2/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [I've had the career experience. I've had the experience of taking care of myself. I'm going to college because I genuinely want to learn.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ariel-winter/i-ve-had-the-career-experience-i-ve-had-the-experience-of-taking-care/) [Ariel Winter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ariel-winter/) > [Having an experience is taking part in the world. 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However, I wanted…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-pfahl/it-would-have-been-possible-to-structure-my-photographs-in-such-a-way/) [John Pfahl](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-pfahl/) > [Something happens between a novel and its reader which is similar to the process of developing photographs, the way they did it before the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/patrick-modiano/something-happens-between-a-novel-and-its-reader-which-is-similar-to/) [Patrick Modiano](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/patrick-modiano/) > [“Other people used photographs as a way to keep close to the events of their lives; she had used them as a way to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anna-quindlen/other-people-used-photographs-as-a-way-to-keep-close-to-the-events-of/) [Anna Quindlen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anna-quindlen/) > [Making photographs can be a way for me to bring something up and into consciousness, something either shared or individual.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/torbj-rn-r-dland/making-photographs-can-be-a-way-for-me-to-bring-something-up-and-into/) [Torbjørn Rødland](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/torbj-rn-r-dland/) ## 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. 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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 Converting quotes > [Growing corn, which from a biological perspective had always been a process of capturing sunlight to turn into food, has in no small measure…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-pollan/growing-corn-which-from-a-biological-perspective-had-always-been-a/) [Michael Pollan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-pollan/) > [To approach a city, or even a city neighborhood, as if it were a larger architectural problem, capable of being given order by converting…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-jacobs/to-approach-a-city-or-even-a-city-neighborhood-as-if-it-were-a-larger/) [Jane Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-jacobs/) > [My guess is that liberating the fossil fuel industry to frack anywhere they want will drive down the rate at which we're converting to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-mckibben/my-guess-is-that-liberating-the-fossil-fuel-industry-to-frack/) [Bill McKibben](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-mckibben/) > [The natural man cannot but resist the Lord's offering to help him; yet that resistance is infallibly overcome in the elect, by converting grace.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-boston/the-natural-man-cannot-but-resist-the-lord-s-offering-to-help-him-yet/) [Thomas Boston](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-boston/) > [We are witnessing the beginning of one of the great tragedies of history. 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This converts the Social Security safety net…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/grace-napolitano/because-of-my-own-experience-with-market-fluctuation-i-recognize-the/) [Grace Napolitano](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/grace-napolitano/) > [There was reference made to a book written in Greek by a former Rabbi who had been converted to Christianity. There was reference to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/julius-streicher/there-was-reference-made-to-a-book-written-in-greek-by-a-former-rabbi/) [Julius Streicher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/julius-streicher/) > [The freedom to convert is fundamental to freedom of religion.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bob-inglis/the-freedom-to-convert-is-fundamental-to-freedom-of-religion/) [Bob Inglis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bob-inglis/) > [You do not belong to you. You belong to the universe. The significance of you will remain forever obscure to you, but you may…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-buckminster-fuller/you-do-not-belong-to-you-you-belong-to-the-universe-the-significance/) [R. Buckminster Fuller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-buckminster-fuller/) > [A private enterprise system needs some measuring rod, it needs something, it needs money to make its transactions. 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