Sontag's Images

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