Step back. Think about the visual stimulants which overwhelm every second of the day. Really consider the vast mass of photographs, videos, and music which swamp the lives of Americans. After this step back to reflect, it is safe to say that we live in a media-enriched society--or maybe media-dependent is more suitable.
Now concentrate on one of these stimulants. The photograph. In this media-dependent society, photographs play the lead role. I can personally attest to the fact that the majority of students my age check the photographs on Facebook roughly ten times a day. We see photographs on the internet, photographs in our textbooks, on billboards, in stores, the pages of magazines are littered with photos; the list is endless. The power of these photographs are endless as well. In Susan Sontag’s essay “Regarding the Pain of Others” she discusses photography’s power to transform. Focusing on war photography, Sontag proves that the repulsive can be photographed and transformed in a beautiful document.
Sontag states that, “In a world in which photography is brilliantly at the service of consumerist manipulations, no effect of a photograph of a doleful scene can be taken for granted” (1). Here she argues that in today’s society, every picture can influence the public. Even “doleful” photos have a great power to provoke emotions in the viewer. The emotions which then become associated with the photograph transform them into beautiful pictures in the viewer’s mind. Sontag continues on to focus on war photography and the corresponding sentiments and feelings (1). She acknowledges the presence of emotions such as, “pity, compassion, [and] indignation” (1), which cause the viewer to feel sympathy. Agreeing with Sontag, I can attest to the fact that sympathy forces the viewer to appreciate the photograph they are viewing. Feelings have a significant role in how you perceive a photograph.
Think back to September 11, 2001. This day sends shivers down the spines of Americans. I can remember sitting in my third grade classroom when suddenly the telephone of my teacher, Mrs. Lynn, began to ring. She answered. Then I saw tears. The woman who I looked up to was suddenly crying in the middle of class and we students had no idea what provoked this unexpected sadness. After this phone call was terminated, another series of ring-rings echoed through our classroom. And then again. Multiple students were being dismissed from school early. And then it was my turn. I was called down to the office to see my mother standing there with fear in her eyes. She hugged me for the longest time and took me home. Immediately upon our arrival, she turned on the television to show and explain that the Twin Towers in New York City had been hit by terrorists. The video reel of the plane crashing into the identical skyscrapers played on repeat on every news station. It is unforgettable.
Although a disaster at the time, one positive consequence of September 11th is that it brought the nation together as a unit. Schools, towns, and communities across the nation joined together in 9/11 relief foundations or fundraising. Looking back on that year, even though I personally was too young to fully comprehend the severity, I can remember our school hosting various assemblies to explain the situation and plan strategies to do our part in the relief efforts. When discussing this infamous date, individual memories are extremely vivid. Everyone can remember where they were, who they were with, and what happened when they heard the news of that tragic day. However, individual memories are not all that we remember. As a country, we use collective memory to piece together the events of this period in time. Sontag discusses collective memory claiming that, “[it] is not a remembering but a stipulating: that this is important, and this is the story about how it happened, with the pictures that lock the story in our minds. Ideologies create substantiating archives of images, representative images, which encapsulate common ideas of significance and trigger predictable thoughts, feelings” (1). By “stipulating” or piecing together a collective memory using the perspective of others and ourselves, we came together as a nation because it was no longer “our story” but it was a nationwide memory. Sontag adds that the photographs of that day also contribute to the collective memory because photographs have the ability to take a still-shot and “lock the story in our minds” (1).
Reflect on the photographs of the infamous day. It was horrifying to see the damage and destruction. The dead bodies, the debris, the smoke, the rescue teams. People could only describe the photographs as “surreal” (1). Yet despite the surreal-ness of these images, the photographs are beautiful. It seems uncanny to describe a “graveyard” as beautiful however, as Sontag explains, “[t]here is beauty in ruins” (1). Photographs have the power to transform an ugly thing such as the ruins of 9/11 into beautiful memories. Even though capturing a horrifying moment in time, I still can see the beauty in the photographs of Ground Zero. Photographers who concentrated on the aftermath of September 11th created collections of beautiful photographs of such an ugly time in American history.
Examine the photographs of expert photographer Joel Meyerowitz. With extreme perseverance, Joel Meyerowitz became the only official photographer allowed to document the ruins of the World Trade Center for a nine month span after September 11th. He displays these photographs in a collection of over eight hundred, called “Aftermath”.
*PHOTOGRAPH #1*
Study this image and visualize the event occurring before your own eyes. Flying over Ground Zero, which is a zone of death, is a flock of birds that are lively. The contradiction in this photograph transforms the land of hopelessness into land of the hopeful. Life is flying above the destruction below, symbolizing that Ground Zero will recover from the horrible past. Meyerowitz accompanies the photo with a personal quote, “I don't know whether it was the crack of the cables snapping that disturbed them, or pure chance that they were passing overhead, but for a few minutes the sky was full of birds wheeling through the sunlight and smoke, their calls and whistles bringing a touch of nature, momentarily, back to the zone” (2). Meyerowitz describes how the simple presence of birds flying over the destruction zone below transforms the photograph into that of nature and life. This photograph reminds me of a section of Sontag’s essay where she acknowledges the authenticity of war photographs when they resemble a paused scene in a war movie (1). She refers to the “cinematic effect” which I think relates to this particular photograph because directors use birds to symbolize peace and hope in a plethora of films. The release of a flock of birds over a dead war zone subliminally shows the viewer that there will be an improvement. The Meyerowitz photograph captures a moment that resembles that of a movie, which transforms this photo into a authentic and beautiful war photograph.
*PHOTOGRAPH #2*
Inspect the foreground and background of this Meyerowitz photograph. The foreground captures the machines hauling off debris and cleaning the damaged ground. While simultaneously the background displays the sunlight highlighting the buildings surrounding the area. Meyerowitz describes, “As I stood there on the November evening, watching the light play and fade on the buildings as the dinosaurs beneath them danced their mad to-and-fro, it all looked wondrous” (3). This photograph and description by Meyerowitz remind me of Susan Sontag’s idea from “Regarding the Pain of Others” which states that, “...the landscape of devastation is still a landscape” (1). The foreground of this photograph displays the devastation being cleared away, a description that does not sound beautiful. However, the total photo, with the light in the background and the haze of smoke, the shot creates a beautiful landscape. The contradiction in this photograph, the part which I believe makes the photograph most beautiful, also reminds me of Sontag’s essay. It “gives mixed signals. Stop this it urges. But it also exclaims, What a spectacle!” (1). The mixed signals in this particular photograph are that the light above shining on the surrounding buildings are the “spectacle” while the machines below in the darkness create an opposite effect. Looking on the photograph as a whole, with the devastated landscape and contradictions, it is stunning.
*PHOTOGRAPH #3*
Observe the sparks flying through the air. The sparks illuminate the sky behind the last column, which brings light to such a dark place. Meyerowitz captured a prominent moment in the World Trade Center cleanup as a welder cuts down what was referred to as the “last column”. When first glancing at the photograph, the sparks resemble Christmas lights, which symbolizes joy. The moment of cutting down the last column standing of the buildings which were brutally attacked, was captured beautifully. Sontag states in her essay, “And photographs are a species of alchemy, for all that they are prized as a transparent account of reality” (1). Alchemy refers most commonly to the transformation of base metals into gold. This definition is appropriate because the bland and destroyed landscape of Ground Zero alludes to the base metals. However, the outcome, the beautiful photographs by Joel Meyerowitz, are gold. Altering such a morbid scene into something beautiful is quite a challenge; however, after careful analysis of his photographs, I believe that Joel Meyerowitz overcomes this challenge.
Step back into reality. The photographs will continue to fly by your eyes with minimal analysis as to the message or why the photographer captured that moment. But, maybe after reflecting on a disaster such as 9/11 and the resulting, beautiful photographs, you can think again about the true meaning. Art is everywhere and it is hard to ignore the beauty. Photographs make time stand still. They have the power to transform an ugly situation into something spectacular. Susan Sontag highlights this power and applies it to the infamous day of September 11, 2011. Thinking back, I now can appreciate the once appalling photographs of the rubble as beautiful documents that generate beauty out of the wreckage.

Works Cited
Sontag, Susan. "Regarding the Pain of Others." Other Words A Writer's Reader. (2009): 257-265. Print.

PHOTOGRAPH #1
"Joel Meyerowitz's World Trade Center Archive." Phaidon. Phaidon Press, 08 09 2011. Web. 19 Oct 2011. .

PHOTOGRAPH #2
"Joel Meyerowitz's World Trade Center Archive." Phaidon. Phaidon Press, 08 09 2011. Web. 19 Oct 2011. .

PHOTOGRAPH #3
"Joel Meyerowitz's World Trade Center Archive." Phaidon. Phaidon Press, 08 09 2011. Web. 19 Oct 2011. .

Posted by Shaz at 2:21 PM