From one of the greatest prose stylists of any generation, the essay that inspired the theme of the 2019 Met Gala, Camp: Notes on Fashion
Many things in the world have not been named; and many things, even if they have been named, have never been described. One of these is the sensibilityβunmistakably modern, a variant of sophistication but hardly identical with itβthat goes by the cult name of βCamp.β
So begins Susan Sontagβs seminal essay βNotes on βCamp.β β Originally published in 1964 and included in her landmark debut essay collection Against Interpretation, Sontagβs notes set out to define something that even the most well-informed could describe only as βI know it when I see it.β At once grounded in a sweeping history (Louis XIV was pure Camp) and entirely provisional, Camp delights in low and high culture alike. Tiffany lamps, the androgynous beauty of Greta Garbo, King Kong (1933), and Mozart all embody the Camp sensibility for Sontagβan almost ineffable blend of artifice, extravagance, playfulness, and a deadly seriousness. At the time Sontag published her essay, Camp, as a subversion of sexual norms, had also become a private code of signification for queer communities.
In nearly every genre and formβfrom visual art, dΓ©cor, and fashion to writing, music, and filmβCamp continues to be redefined today, as seen in the 2019 Met Gala that took Sontagβs essay as the basis for its theme. βStyle is everything,β Sontag tells us, and as Time magazine points out, β βNotes on βCampβ β launched a new way of thinking,β paving the way for a whole new style of cultural criticism, and describing what is, in many ways, the defining sensibility of our culture today.