As someone who closely identifies with the concept of Plato's cave, Sontag immediately earned my attention with the opening of this excerpt of "On Photography." However I feel the point of the excerpt is incredibly hindered by the failure to explain the point of Plato's cave. The cave is a metaphor for where most of humanity hides, and while the masses hide in the cave certain information is given to those in the cave.
The cave attempts to show that the masses are blind to a greater perspective because they are "in" the cave.
Sontag then attempts to argue that the photograph can be used to widen the perspective of the "cave." Images of events, people, or animals allowed a greater scope of the world that paintings failed to grasp, Sontag argues.
In some ways I do agree with her. Because photos do take a less structured image than a painting they are a truer image of the world. Without an artist's eye deciding what is or isn't important, the photograph becomes a "truer" representation of the physical world.
However, with the rampant use of photoshop and photo editing this photographic integrity is disappearing. By editing photos, in anyway at all, is the exact pitfall of Plato's cave. Photos, when edited, pervert their perspective. People believe in the honest reflection of photography, but when the images are twisted and beautified they become as unrealistic as any painting. If photography aims to bring humanity out of Plato's cave then photography seems to be going extinct.
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