--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: To photograph is to confer importance." description: "\"To photograph is to confer importance.\" — Susan Sontag" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/621/susan-sontag-332_importance_to-photograph-is-to-confer-importance-13_1318545.jpg" --- # To photograph is to confer importance. ![“To photograph is to confer importance.” quote by Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/621/susan-sontag-332_importance_to-photograph-is-to-confer-importance-13_1318545.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/621/susan-sontag-332_importance_to-photograph-is-to-confer-importance-13_1318545.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/621/susan-sontag-332_importance_to-photograph-is-to-confer-importance-13_1318545.jpg) > “To photograph is to confer importance.” [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. Photography grants subjects significance, shaping how we value moments. **In simple terms:** Photos give importance. Key Takeaway Use images thoughtfully. Themes art perception value Mood analytical critical Type philosophical observational When to use this quote - journalism - family albums - social media Key Concepts photography representation Questions to Reflect On - What does a photo mean to you? - How does importance affect memory? A Different Perspective Images can misrepresent reality. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Confer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/confer-2299497/) [Confer Importance](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/confer-importance-4385545/) [Importance](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/importance/) [Photograph](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/photograph/) [Photograph Confer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/photograph-confer-4385544/) [Photography](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/photography/) ## Related quotes > [... possessiveness cannot accept; it cannot even strike a fair bargain; it has to confer.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sylvia-townsend-warner/possessiveness-cannot-accept-it-cannot-even-strike-a-fair-bargain-it/) [Sylvia Townsend Warner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sylvia-townsend-warner/) > [Men should friendly confer together, and offer one another their gifts and knowledge in love, and try things one with another, and hold that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jakob-bohme/men-should-friendly-confer-together-and-offer-one-another-their-gifts/) [Jakob Bohme](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jakob-bohme/) > [“...if one is to confer successfully with foreigners, it is essential to know their ways of thinking and be able to put oneself in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mikl-s-b-nffy/if-one-is-to-confer-successfully-with-foreigners-it-is-essential-to/) [Miklós Bánffy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mikl-s-b-nffy/) > [Why don't you confer with Mr. Finnigan? 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Rowling](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/j-k-rowling-2/) > [It is not vain glory for a man and his glass to confer in his own chamber.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-shakespeare/it-is-not-vain-glory-for-a-man-and-his-glass-to-confer-in-his-own/) [William Shakespeare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-shakespeare/) > [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/) > [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/) > [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 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 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 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. 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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 Importance quotes > [For successful education there must always be a certain freshness in the knowledge dealt with. 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It should be obvious…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ansel-adams/i-know-the-importance-of-highly-trained-awareness-of-the-moment-and/) [Ansel Adams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ansel-adams/) > [If, for instance, they have heard something from the postman, they attribute it to a semi-official statement; if they have fallen into conversation with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evelyn-waugh/if-for-instance-they-have-heard-something-from-the-postman-they/) [Evelyn Waugh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evelyn-waugh/) > [To speak of it would be giving importance to that which has none.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leo-tolstoy/to-speak-of-it-would-be-giving-importance-to-that-which-has-none/) [Leo Tolstoy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leo-tolstoy/) > [It's pointless to be critical of your stuff once it's done. I don't spend a lot of time agonising over it. It's of no…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-simon/it-s-pointless-to-be-critical-of-your-stuff-once-it-s-done-i-don-t/) [Paul Simon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-simon/) > [Our civilization, bequeathed to us by fierce adventurers, eaters of meat and hunters, is so full of hurry and combat, so busy about many…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-joyce/our-civilization-bequeathed-to-us-by-fierce-adventurers-eaters-of/) [James Joyce](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-joyce/) > [Don't minimize the importance of luck in determining life's course.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alex-trebek/don-t-minimize-the-importance-of-luck-in-determining-life-s-course/) [Alex Trebek](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alex-trebek/) > [For a successful revolution it is not enough that there is discontent. 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