Samantha Wang
After reading Susan Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of Others I was
deeply moved by two very specific photographs. In chapter three, Sontag
describes Goltzius’s picture of The
Dragon Devouring the Companions of Cadmus (1558) as horrifying. In this
photograph, it is portrays a dragon biting on a man’s head with its razor sharp
teeth, with its claws digging into the thigh and waist of another. The man in
the picture is fully naked and seems to be trying to fight off the dragon by
grasping it by the neck. This picture truly depicts pain and suffering. In the
book Sontag compares this picture to a photograph taken in WWI where a soldier’s
face was shot. I find this picture to be very interesting because I believe
that the artist who drew this picture with the dragon must have a very active
imagination. I think that the dragon might actually have a symbolic meaning
behind it. In the book Sontag states pictures of bodies that are experiencing pain
and suffering are as “keen” as the craving for naked bodies. She states that it
is due to the satisfaction of flinching. I agree with Sontag’s statement
because I believe that people find satisfaction in being able to overcome
obstacles. In this case, the obstacle would be to overcome flinching and being
able to look into the details of the picture.
The
second photograph was located in Sontag’s book in chapter 5, page 90. This picture
was taken by Ron Haviv on April 1992 in Bijeljina. In the photograph, three Serb
militiamen walking on the streets in uniform carrying rifles. One of militiamen
is shown in the picture getting ready to kick a woman with one hand holding his
rifle and the other holding a cigarette. The woman is lying facing the floor,
covering her face and pretending to be dead on the street. I find this picture
to be sickening. Sontag argues, “The photograph doesn’t tell us that she is
Muslim, though she is unlikely to have been labeled in any other way, for why
would she and the two others be lying there, as if dead (why ‘dying’?), under
the gaze of some Serb soldiers?” In this statement Sontag believes that this
woman was a Muslim due to the Serb militiaman’s act of violence. I believe that
this picture is an example of what happens in war as well as displays the
ruthlessness in people. The woman seemed to be unarmed and not violent; there
was no reason for such violence. The posing in the picture tells us that the
man was careless, and did not care about the person he was clearly attacking.
Images from Google.com
