Regarding the pain of others

Susan Sontag was an American writer, filmmaker and political activist. She was active in writing and tarveling to areas of conflict and mainly wrote about photograpy.

In her book Regarding the pain of others she states "The photographs are a means of
making "real" (or "more real") matters that the privileged and the
merely safe might prefer to ignore." this suggests that she believes that those who are wealthier do not like to acknowledge the problems that many people, who are not as well off, face. And I don't disagree, todays society like to just block out issues instead of trying to help and spread the wealth. Not many people like to give and that just adds to poverty. The rich become richer and the poor poorer and that's not how it should work.

To add to that she also sys "Look, the
photographs say, this is what it's like. This is what war does. And
that, that is what it does, too. War tears, rends. War rips open,
eviscerates. War scorches. War dismembers. War ruins. " She is saying this too a lawyer, someone that is well off probably in all ways possible. She is telling him how destructive war actually is and how may people actually do suffer from it. Not everyone escapes from war and not everyone is lucky enough to never have to experience that. I also agree with spreading awareness of these things and trying o help as much as possible but I do not believe she should be targeting specific people.

Sontag also suggests that "war speaks for itself" meaning that images of war show all that they need too but I do not agree. there is no possible way to capture every second of war and every aspect of it. can you capture a mother holding her lifeless child while also capturing the gunman cheering at his victory because he succeeded in his job? You cant get all of that in one image. Nobody knows what war is truly like unless you experience it and most that experience war do not make it out alive