The book "On photography" by Susan Sontag is considered as one of the books of reflexion the most important on the topic. Written in 5 years (from 1973 to 1977), the six volumes have strongly influenced any thought on photography including this observation : "writing about photography is writing about the world".
As soon as you read the first pages the ton is set. Several precepts fly into pieces in an effusive of ideas about the place of photography from its origin to the 70s. Susan Sontag mentions for example the first Kodak's slogan in 1888, "you press the button, we do the rest" along with the large hoardings located front of the Indian villages, calling upon the new comers to take their cameras out - "The photographer is super tourist, visiting natives and bringing back news for their exotic doings and strange gear..." .
In her description she highlights the errors committed by the surrealists and involves herself in denouncing the destruction of Sanders' work by the Nazi regime. She also takes a stand against the American propaganda through the obstinacy of the Farm Security Administration. She subsequently pays tribute to Hine's work for the National Child Labour Committee which will change the laws on child labor. If there is a certain nostalgia ( shock caused while reading a book about concentration camps) for old photographs, dear to Roland Barthes, Susan Sontag discusses on the work of American artists such as Whitman, Steichen, Hine, Evans, Stieglitz, Brassaï, Warhol and Robert Franck.
The author compares the hope of a manifestation as Family Man in 1955 and the Diana Arbus work who, by her honesty, imposes a moral triumph and reminds through her work the realities of the American society and calls for more transparency in reminding effectively that "to photograph is to confer importance"
Reading and viewing:
Susan Sontag, on photography: http://www.susansontag.com/SusanSontag/books/onPhotographyExerpt.shtml
Phil Gyford's website : http://www.gyford.com/phil/writing/2010/08/23/on-photography.php
On photography by Susan Sontag
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