In Plato’s Cave-Susan Sontag

There is a great relationship between Plato’s writing Allegory of the cave and photography. I always saw photography as a way to share your perspective. The prisoners in Plato’s tale only know their life in the cave. Their understanding of the world is confined and they are not able to see the world for what it is. Photography allows people to escape their own cave’s. Sontag writes, “To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge—and, therefore, like power. ”(2). The ability to learn and share through photography was a part of its popularity. Photography allows people to visualise history. It creates windows into other people's lives. Other people's emotions. Photos can connect people.  

 The facet of illusion was another major aspect of Plato’s writing. It’s hard to not be deceived with our technological heavy world. Sontag writes, “ In deciding how a picture should look, in preferring one exposure to another, photographers are always imposing standards on their subjects. Although there is a sense in which the camera does indeed capture reality, not just interpret it, photographs are as much an interpretation of the world as paintings and drawings are”(3). Paintings and other art forms were able to shape reality to how the artist saw fit. This greatly influences what people concerned to be beautiful. People can create their idealised versions of the world and show them off as reality. Photography is meant to be more realistic. When people can easily edit an image until they are content. 

The flaw within human perspective is a theme in plato’s writing.The cave in the story represents people who believe that knowledge comes from what we see and hear in the world. Photography goes beyond this concept and becomes more artistic then factual. Art is meant to create conversation. To open their audiences mind. To shake someone up. Songtag says“Any photograph has multiple meanings; indeed, to see something in the form of a photograph is to encounter a potential object of fascination”( 17). This is another version of people's perception of art. One art piece can mean different things to different people. Art can be both subjective and objective. It’s all up to the viewer.