--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Photographs shock insofar as they show…" description: "\"Photographs shock insofar as they show something novel.\" — Susan Sontag" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/015/susan-sontag-332_novel_photographs-shock-insofar-as-they-show-s_2958860.jpg" --- # Photographs shock insofar as they show something novel. ![“Photographs shock insofar as they show something novel.” quote by Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/015/susan-sontag-332_novel_photographs-shock-insofar-as-they-show-s_2958860.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/015/susan-sontag-332_novel_photographs-shock-insofar-as-they-show-s_2958860.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/015/susan-sontag-332_novel_photographs-shock-insofar-as-they-show-s_2958860.jpg) > “Photographs shock insofar as they show something novel.” [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 impact viewers by presenting unprecedented visual information. **In simple terms:** Images shock by showing something new. Key Takeaway Consider the power of visual media. Themes art perception media Mood reflective critical Type essayistic theoretical When to use this quote - gallery exhibitions - journalism - social media Key Concepts visual culture novelty shock value Questions to Reflect On - How do images shape our reality? - When does novelty become desensitizing? A Different Perspective Impact may be fleeting without context. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Insofar Novel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/insofar-novel-4495723/) [Novel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/novel/) [Photograph](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/photograph/) [Photographs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/photographs/) [Photographs Shock](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/photographs-shock-4495721/) [Photography](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/photography/) [Shock](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/shock/) [Shock Insofar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/shock-insofar-4495722/) [Shows](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/shows/) ## 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/) > [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/) > [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/) > [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. 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/) > [Life is not significant details, illuminated by a flash, fixed forever. Photographs are.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/life-is-not-significant-details-illuminated-by-a-flash-fixed-forever/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Standing alone, photographs promise an understanding they cannot deliver. In the company of words, they take on meaning, but they slough off one meaning…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/standing-alone-photographs-promise-an-understanding-they-cannot/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The photograph is like a quotation, or a maxim or proverb. Each of us mentally stocks hundreds of photographs, subject to instant recall.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-photograph-is-like-a-quotation-or-a-maxim-or-proverb-each-of-us/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Although there is a sense in which the camera does indeed capture reality, not just interpret it, photographs are as much an interpretation of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/although-there-is-a-sense-in-which-the-camera-does-indeed-capture/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The particular qualities and intentions of photographs tend to be swallowed up in the generalized pathos of time past.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-particular-qualities-and-intentions-of-photographs-tend-to-be/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Photographs are perhaps the most mysterious of all the objects that make up, and thicken, the environment we recognize as modern. Photographs really are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-are-perhaps-the-most-mysterious-of-all-the-objects-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Photographs furnish evidence. Something we hear about, but doubt, seems proven when we're shown a photograph of it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-furnish-evidence-something-we-hear-about-but-doubt-seems/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [To collect photographs is to collect the world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/to-collect-photographs-is-to-collect-the-world/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Most of the photographs people take with their cameraphones are of little value in terms of documentary.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martin-parr/most-of-the-photographs-people-take-with-their-cameraphones-are-of/) [Martin Parr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martin-parr/) ## 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 Novel quotes > [I think books in which people are really happy and things are going well are probably the most challenging novels there are to write,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anna-quindlen/i-think-books-in-which-people-are-really-happy-and-things-are-going/) [Anna Quindlen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anna-quindlen/) > [“Holy hell, Trev! What kind of move was that?” Trevor leaned over her with a big smile on his face. “You really thought I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cecilia-aubrey-chris-almeida/holy-hell-trev-what-kind-of-move-was-that-trevor-leaned-over-her-with/) [Cecilia Aubrey & Chris Almeida](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cecilia-aubrey-chris-almeida/) > [I think of novels as houses. You live in them over the course of a long period, both as a reader and as a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nicole-krauss/i-think-of-novels-as-houses-you-live-in-them-over-the-course-of-a/) [Nicole Krauss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nicole-krauss/) > [I have often heard that the novel is dead. But I see novels produced, I don't know how many a week, in France. I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nathalie-sarraute/i-have-often-heard-that-the-novel-is-dead-but-i-see-novels-produced-i/) [Nathalie Sarraute](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nathalie-sarraute/) > [Neither novels or their readers benefit from any attempts to divine whether any facts hide inside a story. Such efforts attack the very idea…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-green/neither-novels-or-their-readers-benefit-from-any-attempts-to-divine/) [John Green](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-green/) > [I'm not interested in making a diagnostic novel or a concern. I'm 100 percent committed in fiction to the pleasure principle - that's what…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martin-amis/i-m-not-interested-in-making-a-diagnostic-novel-or-a-concern-i-m-100/) [Martin Amis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martin-amis/) > [If writing novels is like planting a forest, then writing short stories is more like planting a garden.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/haruki-murakami/if-writing-novels-is-like-planting-a-forest-then-writing-short/) [Haruki Murakami](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/haruki-murakami/) > [Dominion is a spy novel, a love story, and also I hope gives some sense of the difficulties faced by dissidents under any totalitarian…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-j-sansom/dominion-is-a-spy-novel-a-love-story-and-also-i-hope-gives-some-sense/) [C.J. Sansom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-j-sansom/) > [At the outset, my notion of being a writer was that you would have moments of inspiration and moments of frustration, when you'd crumple…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-rachman/at-the-outset-my-notion-of-being-a-writer-was-that-you-would-have/) [Tom Rachman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-rachman/) > [After I finished college, I got a job on Wall Street as a derivatives trader, but after a couple years of it, I was…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/philipp-meyer/after-i-finished-college-i-got-a-job-on-wall-street-as-a-derivatives/) [Philipp Meyer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/philipp-meyer/) > [No one will ever write a fantasy novel better than The Hobbit.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/no-one-will-ever-write-a-fantasy-novel-better-than-the-hobbit/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [What I strive to do is make my characters seem like real people so that the reader experiences them as people - that's something…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jaume-cabre/what-i-strive-to-do-is-make-my-characters-seem-like-real-people-so/) [Jaume Cabre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jaume-cabre/) > [The novel is the dream release, the suspension of reality that history needs to escape its own brutal confinements.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/don-delillo/the-novel-is-the-dream-release-the-suspension-of-reality-that-history/) [Don DeLillo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/don-delillo/) > [If it is written and read with serious attention, a novel, like a myth or any great work of art, can become an initiation…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-armstrong/if-it-is-written-and-read-with-serious-attention-a-novel-like-a-myth/) [Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-armstrong/) > [“A novel is not an allegory...it is a sensual experience of another world. If you don't enter that world, hold your breath with the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/azar-nafisi/a-novel-is-not-an-allegory-it-is-a-sensual-experience-of-another/) [Azar Nafisi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/azar-nafisi/) [Browse all 5,715 Novel quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/novel/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Photographs shock insofar as they show something novel.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Susan Sontag" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-shock-insofar-as-they-show-something-novel/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Novel" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-shock-insofar-as-they-show-something-novel/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/015/susan-sontag-332_novel_photographs-shock-insofar-as-they-show-s_2958860.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/015/susan-sontag-332_novel_photographs-shock-insofar-as-they-show-s_2958860.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/015/susan-sontag-332_novel_photographs-shock-insofar-as-they-show-s_2958860.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Photographs shock insofar as they show something novel.” — 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": "Photographs shock insofar as they show...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-shock-insofar-as-they-show-something-novel/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-shock-insofar-as-they-show-something-novel/#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 } } ] } ```