Regarding the Pain of Others

In 'Regarding the Pain of Others', Susan Sontag delves into the role of photography in depicting war and violence, examining how these images affect our sympathy and moral sensibilities.

The book is a follow-up to her earlier work 'On Photography' and discusses various historical and contemporary examples of war photography, from Goya's 'The Disasters of War' to images from the American Civil War, the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Israel, and Palestine.

Sontag questions the purpose of showing atrocities, the limits of our sympathy, and our obligations to others, highlighting the danger of becoming desensitized to violence and the importance of translating compassion into action.