“One can feel obliged to look at phototgraphs that record great cruelties and crimes. One should feel obliged to think about what it means to look at them, about the capacity actually to assimilate what they show. Not all reactions to these pictures are under the supervision of reason and conscience.”

American writer and critic

Susan Sontag was an American writer and critic. She worked mainly in essays, and also wrote novels. Her first major work was the essay "Notes on 'Camp'" in 1964. She is best known for critical books such as Against Interpretation, On Photography, Illness as Metaphor, and Regarding the Pain of Others, as well as the short story "The Way We Live Now" and the novels The Volcano Lover and In America. Her work often explored culture, images, and the experience of illness and suffering.