Susan Sontag interviews herself

Why do you take photos?

I travel, so I like to recall where I’ve been. And people I’ve met.

So you are a tourist in other people’s realities?

Eventually the camera makes me a tourist in my own reality.

Could it also be that your traveling becomes a reason for taking photos?

Perhaps. But to take a photograph is to confer importance on an otherwise unnoticed event.

But don’t you think, with some photos, when you record the past, you are also inventing it?

You mean, because photographs give people an imaginary possession of a past that is unreal?

So the camera lies?

Not only that, it also helps people take possession of space in which they are insecure.

Will you write a book about photography?

Books are funny little portable pieces of thought.

Will you try taking photographs of your thoughts?

If I do, the images will be surreal.
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