Lasting Effect

Susan Sontag made an interesting statement in her essay “Regarding the Pain of Others”. She said, “photographs haunt us.” I think this is a statement that warrants revisiting and closer examination.  Sontag chose such strong words; ‘haunting’ almost always has a negative connotation. It’s something that happens to you without your consent or desire, almost to portray photography as this aggressive and intrusive entity whose influence and effects we cannot avoid. How do photographs haunt us? How do they find their way into our minds and play on our emotions in ways that other forms of art sometimes simply cannot?

Here we have a chart of some common emotions.

I won’t look over all of them here, but just a few of the more common ones. And I’ll start with…

This. I’d like to say this image would fall under the emotional category of anger, but I know that human emotion is much more complicated than that. We are such complex creatures that we are capable of feeling a great multitude of emotions at once. So, when looking at this image one might feel anger but also disgust, sadness, worry, or even fear. Why? In this society, at least, we have been almost conditioned to have that response. Every time we see this person it is in conjunction with some horrible news broadcast about nuclear weapons or human rights violations. Even if we can’t remember the name, the face is immediately associated with that which is evil and immoral.

And next: sadness. It’s not difficult to find sad photographs. What’s difficult is pinpointing exactly what makes them sad. We will try and go through that process with this photograph.

This photograph is sad because... the child is dead.

Death is sad because... the person was probably in pain.

What if the person died instantly, and never felt any pain? Death is still sad.

Why? Because of those that get left behind. We miss the deceased.

What if we don’t know the deceased? Death can still be sad.

Why? We feel empathy for the losses of others.

What about this photograph then? It has nothing to do with death, and yet can still be considered ‘sad’ by some.

I think this has to do with empathy or sympathy. Empathy if we have experienced the same or similar situation, we recall those times in our life and know exactly what they are feeling. Sympathy just from seeing another human being going through a difficult time, we are sorry that they suffering, and perhaps wish we could help.

And finally, to end on a much happier note…

Joy! It’s something that’s contagious just like yawning. It’s a generally accepted fact that laughter is especially contagious. This simply transfers over into photographs. We look at some images and can’t help but smile, even if just a little on the inside. And there’s something particularly joyful about baby laughter. Unlike their older counterparts who might feign a smile or laugh for whatever reason, a baby’s laughter is always genuine. If they’re not happy you’ll know it. And if they are...


  

Of course, everyone interprets emotion in their own way. What one person sees as sad another might not. What I think is scary someone else might think is funny. (Speaking of scary, I was going to address fear but decided against it. Instead, you can click here for an interesting video on what makes things creepy.) Photography as a whole is subject to interpretation by the viewer- both its meaning and its emotional effects.