Ugly Duckling / Beautiful Swan

"To photograph is to confer importance" Susan Sontag (1933-) On Photography, 2, 1977

"So successful has been the camera's role in beautifying the world that photographs rather than the world, have become the standard of the beautiful." Susan Sontag (1933-) On Photography, 4, 1977

Admiring Friend: My, that's a beautiful baby you have there!

Mother: Oh that's nothing--you should see his photograph!
Anonymous: In Daniel J. Boorstin, The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America, 1 (epigraph), 1961