A Beauty To Behold

"To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge -- and, therefore, like power." These are the words of Sontag, author of "Beauty" and "On Photography," a woman whose own power originates in words, in thought, and not in images. Susan Sontag performs her art through mental pictures that vary from person to person, imagery through language rather than colors and pixels. However, literature is not the only form of art - for aside from the alien magic (photographs) that captures moments under the sun, in the rain, and in microscopic detail - there are also pictures painted by brushes. Susan Sontag glosses over this type of picture, an abstract one, where focus is discarded in favor of emotion, and the blurry beauty of nature. Despite the strong assertion that experience and "living in the moment" is punctured with "pollution" of the mind, such as selfies and instagram filter obsessions, pictures do not solely dwell in a superficial reality parallel to the real one. Pictures can just as easily enhance reality and allow for observation that the eye cannot capture appropriately. Therefore, although pictures, when utilized excessively, are instruments of narcissism and frivolity, they also allow for a profound appreciation which cannot be properly attained otherwise. Pictures are "an ethic of seeing," as Sontag so agreeably defines, and good or bad, aren't they easy on the eyes?