Graven Images

Saul Bellow

 

Saul Bellow, a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize winner, was included in The Best American Essays of the Century, where he speaks of the good and evils of photography. Bellow wrote Graven Images, in order to show new generations, that have only known technology, that photography is not always the representation one sees of themself, and how photography can change the way one acts.

Bellow, uses the repetition and connotation of the phrase “Amoure Propre”, to reflect on the destruction of ones personal image through photography, and to show how photography can vastly change one’s authenticity. Amoure Propre, as defined by Merriam-Webster is self-esteem. However, Saul Bellow claims, “Broadly speaking, your amour propre is the territory invaded by the picture takers” (Bellow 564). In sharing a different view of the phrase, Bellow is suggesting that one’s dignity is chosen by how they are photographed. He included his own definition of the phrase so readers can fathom the power a photograph has on one’s self worth. Saul Bellow consistently wrote of “Amoure Propre”, to advise readers that photography can create a change in how one wants to be presented. Bellow wrote, “Amoure propre, with all its hypocritical tricks, is the product of your bourgeois outlook. Your aim is to gain general acceptance for your false self, to make propaganda, concealing your real motives- motives of personal advantage” (Bellow 565). Saul Bellow believes that photography has created an identity crisis in people, in that they wish to show someone whom they are not. Saul Bellow shares this perspective in an effort to show that photography, which is frequently present in society, presents a view that can be false representation of one, and it can create phoniness in one’s life due to the desire to be seen different.

Societies today only know of photography and the views an image can create. After reading Graven Images, by Saul Bellow, it is understandable that as humans, it is desired to be seen a certain way, but one single image does not always show this. Saul Bellow very much proved that photography is not the perfect representation of one’s self image, and that it can create falseness in one’s personality. Before viewing Bellow’s opinions, one from this current generation might find that photography does not have a destructive nature. However, Saul opens one’s eyes to see the downsides of photography, such as poor portrayal and acting differently to create a deceitful image.

 

 

“A photograph that made me look worse than the Ruins of Athens”

(Saul Bellow New York Times)