--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: So successful has been the camera's role…" description: "\"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.\" ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7a7/susan-sontag-332_beautiful_so-successful-has-been-the-camera-s-role_195615.jpg" --- # So successful has been the camera's role in beautifying… ![“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.” quote by Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7a7/susan-sontag-332_beautiful_so-successful-has-been-the-camera-s-role_195615.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7a7/susan-sontag-332_beautiful_so-successful-has-been-the-camera-s-role_195615.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7a7/susan-sontag-332_beautiful_so-successful-has-been-the-camera-s-role_195615.jpg) > “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.” [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. The camera shapes beauty standards, making images the benchmark for attractiveness. **In simple terms:** Photos define beauty more than reality. Key Takeaway Critically assess media‑driven beauty norms. Themes media beauty standards photography Mood critical analytical Type cultural philosophical When to use this quote - advertising - social media - fashion industry Key Concepts sociology culture representation Questions to Reflect On - How does photography influence your perception of beauty? - What alternatives to visual standards exist? A Different Perspective Challenging entrenched standards can be socially risky. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Beautiful](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beautiful/) [Cameras](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cameras/) [Photography](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/photography/) [Success](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/success/) [Successful](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/successful/) [World](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/world/) ## Related quotes > [ \[Betty in Two Evil Eyes\]was my very first on-camera role. With Harvey Keitel. ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/julie-benz/betty-in-two-evil-eyes-was-my-very-first-on-camera-role-with-harvey/) [Julie Benz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/julie-benz/) > [I was making photographs of the world long before I was a photographer.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcey-jacobson/i-was-making-photographs-of-the-world-long-before-i-was-a-photographer/) Marcey Jacobson > [Beautifying your heart is far better than beautifying your face.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anas/beautifying-your-heart-is-far-better-than-beautifying-your-face/) [Anas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anas/) > [“That it’s still worth beautifying, even though it’s temporary.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-rebecca-white/that-it-s-still-worth-beautifying-even-though-it-s-temporary/) [Susan Rebecca White](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-rebecca-white/) > [It may be that until now there has been no more potent means for beautifying man himself than piety: it can turn man into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/it-may-be-that-until-now-there-has-been-no-more-potent-means-for/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [Ugliness, squalor are breeding grounds for revolution. Beauty is conducive to tranquillity, happiness. Beautifying of homes and places of worship began with the dawn…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/b-c-forbes/ugliness-squalor-are-breeding-grounds-for-revolution-beauty-is/) [B. C. Forbes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/b-c-forbes/) > [Rather than beautifying one’s own creation, make better the environment that surrounds it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/yugo-nakamura/rather-than-beautifying-one-s-own-creation-make-better-the/) Yugo Nakamura > [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/) > [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/) > [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 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/) ## 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 Beautiful quotes > [I received a beautiful welcome to the world of music. 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Call her ugly once, and she will never forget it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tumblr/call-her-beautiful-a-million-times-and-she-won-t-believe-you-call-her/) Tumblr > [You will never know just how beautiful you are to me.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/you-will-never-know-just-how-beautiful-you-are-to-me/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [You felt a deep sorrow, the kind of melancholy you feel when you're in a beautiful place and the sun is going down](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thrity-umrigar/you-felt-a-deep-sorrow-the-kind-of-melancholy-you-feel-when-you-re-in/) [Thrity Umrigar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thrity-umrigar/) > [ Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit. 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