Susan Sontag/Philosophical Photography Style – Theoretical, Meditative, Examining the Image
A photograph is not just an image; it is evidence. Evidence that something happened, that a moment was charged with meaning, that time, for an instant, paused in anticipation.
The act of play, especially play that mirrors violence, is a performance of power and recognition. A duel, even in jest, establishes a hierarchy, or at least tests one. The raised cane is both an invitation and a command: respond, or be left out of the story.
The photograph of two women in a bar, canes clashing, is not simply a record of an event. It is part of a lineage of images—sword fights in paintings, gentlemanly duels, staged Hollywood combat. But unlike those, this moment was not choreographed. It happened because human beings, when given the opportunity, will always reenact the mythologies they have absorbed.
The dueling canes are not just objects. They are symbols. They mean something because we believe they do. The camera captures that belief, fixes it in time, makes it visible. But the meaning? That always belongs to the viewer.
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