ON PHOTOGRAPHY
INTRODUCTION
In 1839, photography based on physico-chemical principles was introduced to the world. Early notions of photography likened it to the “pencil of nature,” a mirror with memory, a trace of reality, or a preservation of time. These metaphors primarily defined the relationship between photography and reality. Geoffrey Batchen notes that the burden of photography is its dependence on reality. Concepts such as objectivity, truth, identity, memory, document, and archive are closely tied to the emergence of the camera. The transition from silver salts to silicon sensors, and from film grain to pixel, marked another phase — the arrival of digital photography. By the end of the millennium, photography had transformed into a culture of seeing.
The current state is often referred to as the post-photographic era — that which follows traditional photography. If traditional photography primarily speaks of the past, post-photography speaks more of a continuous present.
“Post-photography is photography that flows in the hybrid space of digital sociability and is a consequence of visual overabundance. The iconosphere is no longer just a metaphor: we inhabit the image, and the image inhabits us.” 1
Memory and truth — once foundational categories of photography — are now negligible, secondary, in the post-photographic condition. They disappear in favor of simplification, connection, and communication. Truth was elemental 2 in analog photography, while in the digital image it becomes merely a possibility. The desire for immortality has been replaced by transience and simultaneity.
The act of photographing, as the primary expression of homo photographicus 3, evolved in response to an environment shaped by cheap, easily usable cameras and mobile phones with built-in lenses. The value of the photographic object is approaching zero. At the same time, we have all become producers and consumers of images. The image no longer serves as a mediator between us and the world — the human becomes an inseparable part of the image. Photographic seeing gains dominance over knowing.Extraordinary experiences (decisive moments) captured in photographs are still present, but they are gradually being displaced by banal experiences (everyday moments). Thus, albums now contain more banal photographs than they once did. Photography is trivialized, because it lacks both monetary and content-based value.
Photography as a surface represents a state between appearance and disappearance. It becomes a mediator between the material and immaterial aspects of reality. The model of the human eye as the fundamental mechanism of seeing is transforming in favor of a new logic of visual production, in which images are created from other images. The stream of images accumulates uncontrollably and culminates.
It seems that photography, as such, has visually exhausted the world. If the cameras built into our phones are no longer enough, and if the Earth itself is becoming a camera, photography still offers a promise and potential for new, untapped possibilities. With the recent photographing of a black hole, a new era of photography arrives with hope.
This work aims to contribute to the discussion about the current state of photography. It seeks to reopen the question: What is photography? And what does photography mean today — not only in terms of content but also in terms of form? What does the compulsive act of constant recording mean? How has the shortening of the time needed to produce a photograph influenced people, and what are the consequences of this shift for photography’s value? Why is photography becoming invisible, even though it has saturated human space? Why has the camera, as a prosthesis of the human body, become embedded not in the eye, but in the finger (digitus)?
1. Fontcuberta, J. Le Mois de la Photo a Montreal: The Post-Photographic Condition. Bielefeld : Kerber Verlag, 2016. p. 6. 9:40 978-3-7356-0127-8.
2. Despite this, analog photography has been manipulated since its inception.
3. Neumüller, M. The Routledge Companion to Photography and Visual Culture.
London : Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2018. p. 375. 9:40 978-1-138-66739-6.
Introduction
Photography and Memory
Photography and the Act of Photographing
Photography as a Surface in Time
Photography as Knowledge and Seeing
Photography and the Black Hole
Photography as Non-photography
Photography as Horizon
Conclusion