Photographic Evangels
Citation
Sontag, Susan. “Photographic Evangels.” The New York Review of Books 23, no. 17 (4 November 1976).
Later revised and incorporated as Chapter 5 (“Photographic Evangels”) of On Photography (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977). The chapter title in the book is identical to this essay’s NYRB title. For the book compilation see src-sontag-1977.
Relevance
The fourth of Sontag’s five New York Review of Books essays. Addresses photography criticism and the discourse of photography’s champions — those who made claims for photography as an autonomous art form and social instrument. This essay bears directly on the reception of The Family of Man as a paradigm case of photography instrumentalized for humanist-ideological purposes: Steichen as quintessential “photographic evangel.” The essay’s NYRB publication in late 1976 gave it currency in the photography-theory discourse just as October journal was being founded (1976) and the critical-theoretical moment was gathering momentum.
Tier 2: named-author critical theory of record. The chapter title’s survival unchanged from NYRB to book makes this one of the most directly traceable essays to a specific book chapter.
Key excerpts / pages
- Access status (2026-04-30): WebFetch not permitted in this session. NYRB archive requires subscription. Body text NOT consulted in this round.
- The book version (Chapter 5 of
src-sontag-1977) carries the same title. Arguments can be traced from the book, but page numbers from the NYRB periodical appearance are not available in this round. - Cross-reference to
src-sandeen-1995: Sandeen’s study is the anchor for contextualizing Sontag’s critique within the Family of Man reception — NOT re-fetched in this round.
Notes
- Fourth in the five-essay NYRB series: (1) “Photography” 18 Oct 1973; (2) “Freak Show” 15 Nov 1973; (3) “Shooting America” 18 Apr 1974; (4) “Photographic Evangels” 4 Nov 1976; (5) “The Image-World” 1977.
- The timing of this essay (November 1976) coincides with the founding year of October journal. The convergence of Sontag’s NYRB series and the October founding moment marks a critical threshold in photography’s theoretical institutionalization.
- Cross-reference to
src-sontag-1977(book compilation, Chapter 5 carries identical title);src-sontag-1973-nyrb-photography(first essay). - Cross-reference to
src-sandeen-1995: anchor for Family of Man reception history. verified: false: URL not fetched; full text not retrieved; body text NOT consulted in this round. Title, date, volume, issue, and book-chapter correspondence carried from standard bibliographic citation, not from a primary fetch.