this is a book that illustrates that the photograph, especially, the war scene has been utilized to capture the attention of audiences, and people get increasingly less sensitive in the confrontation with the presentation of media. it is a sort of old notion in explaining the relationship between human and image, but still useful in articulating the current situation and people's attitude towards the war and cliche brought by daily media reportage.

 

While debunking a certain number of common misconceptions (including some to which she contributed) concerning images of pain, horror, and atrocity, Regarding the Pain of Others both underscores their importance and undercuts hopes that they can communicate very much. On the one hand, narrative and framing confer upon images most of their meaning, and on the other, Sontag says, those who have not lived through such things "can't understand, can't imagine" the experiences such images represent

 

 

notes:

 

Awareness of the suffering that accumulates in a select number of wars happening elsewhere is something constructed. Principally in the form that is registered by cameras, In contrast to a written account a photograph has only one language and is destined potentially for all. 

battles and massacres filmed as they unfold have been a routine ingredient of the ceaseless flow of domestic, small-screen entertainment.

 

In an era of information overload, the photograph provides a quick way of apprehending something and a compact form for memorizing it. The photograph is like a quotation, or a maxim or proverb. Each of us mentally stocks hundreds of photographs, subject to instant recall. 

 

 the photographic image, even to the extent that it is a trace (not a construction made out of disparate photographic traces), cannot be simply a transparency of something that happened. It is always the image that someone chose; to photograph is to frame, and to frame is to exclude. 

 

A photograph is supposed not to evoke but to show. That is why photographs, unlike handmade images, can count as evidence.