"Because each photograph is only a fragment, its moral and emotional weight depends on where it is inserted. A photograph changes according to the context in which it is seen: thus Smith's Minamata photographs will seem different on a contact sheet, in a gallery, in a political demonstration, in a police file, in a photographic magazine, in a book, on a living-room wall. Each o these situations suggest a different use for the photographs but none can secure their meaning."

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Source: Susan Sontag (2011). “On Photography”, p.94, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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Susan Sontag

Essayist, Critic, Activist

Susan Sontag was an influential American writer and thinker, known for her critical essays on art, culture, and politics.

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