Inner Secrets

“It is the premise of the photographer that is the art of penetrating your private defenses” (Bellow par. 7). Author Saul Bellow wrote this line to challenge society’s view of photographers and photographs in general. Saul Bellow was an American writer who, among other awards, won a Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature. Graven Images continues Bellow’s reputation for great writing, and describes his experiences being photographed in public, and how he feels about that process. As a well photographed celebrity himself, Bellow writes to other celebrities, who could find the meaning of the photographs they appear in thought-provoking. Through the use of definition and narrative, Bellow tries to convince the audience that photos are an easier way for society to understand their inner secrets. Graven Images was written in 1997, before digital cameras were invented and social media websites like Flickr became commonly used throughout society. He first comments on how being photographed makes him feel like his “amour propre” is being violated. Bellow defines amour propre as your persuasion of others to, “view you as you need to be viewed” (Par. 3). Bellow uses this definition to show his audience that photographers purposefully dig further into your personal life. He even goes on to show examples of this being violated. For example, Bellow narrates about a photograph of himself in TIME magazine. He writes, “I was brought low by Blake’s blazing words. But it is the prerogative of the mass media to bring you down when they think you have gotten ahead of yourself” (Bellow par. 9). Since William Blake wrote about the faces of prostitutes in his texts, it exposed the public to a new way of looking at Bellow and his work. By using his own narratives as evidence for the violation of amour propre, Bellow is able to convince the audience that photographs are a very easy method to be exposed by. He even includes a line about changing society, stating, “Such simple romantic standards of personal dignity and of the respect due to privacy are to be found today only in remote corners of backward countries” (Bellow par. 12). Bellow tries to show that as photography gets more and more common, keeping oneself from being exposed will become more and more difficult. Along with other lines from the text, Bellow does indeed convince readers that there is more to photographs that on the surface; that they can violate the amour propre of people who intend to keep their inner secrets to themselves.

Here is one of the many photographs taken of Saul Bellow throughout his life. This is one of the photographs he refers to in his essay, when talking about amour propre and the exposure of one's inner secrets. This image was first included in a New York Times article written by Mel Gussow and Charles McGrath.