Sontag / Barthes / Bazin V2
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On Photography
THE PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGE IS THE OBJECT ITSELF, THE OBJECT FREED FROM THE CONDITIONS OF TIME AND SPACE THAT GOVERN IT
THE AGE OF THE PHOTOGRAPH IS ALSO THE AGE OF REVOLUTIONS, CONTESTATIONS, ASSASSINATIONS, EXPLOSIONS, IN SHORT, OF IMPATIENCES, OF EVERYTHING WHICH DENIES RIPENING
ALL THE ARTS ARE BASED ON THE PRESENCE OF MAN, ONLY PHOTOGRAPHY DERIVES AN ADVANTAGE FROM HIS ABSENCE.
On Photography by Susan Sontag expresses her views on the history and present-day role of photography in capitalist societies as of the 1970s. She argues that the proliferation of photographic images had begun to establish within people a "chronic voyeuristic relation” to the world around them. Among the consequences of photography is that the meaning of all events is leveled and made equal.
LIKE A CAR. A CAMERA IS SOLD AS A PREDATORY WEAPON-ONE THAT'S AS AUTOMATED AS POSSIBLE, READY TO SPRING. POPULAR TASTE EXPECTS AN EASY, AN INVISIBLE TECHNOLOGY.
PHOTOGRAPHS SHOCK INSOFAR AS THEY SHOW SOMETHING NOVEL.
THE PAINTER CONSTRUCTS, THE PHOTOGRAPHER DISCLOSES.
A PAINTING IS COMMISSIONED OR BOUGHT; A PHOTOGRAPH IS FOUND... OR EASILY TAKEN ONESELF.
THE PHOTOGRAPH MECHANICALLY REPEATS WHAT COULD NEVER BE REPEATED EXISTENTIALLY.
FOR THE FIRST TIME, THE IMAGE OF THINGS IS LIKEWISE THE IMAGE OF THEIR DURATION.
DESPITE THE ILLUSION OF GIVING UNDERSTANDING, WHAT SEEING THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHS REALLY INVITES IS AN ACQUISITIVE RELATION TO THE WORLD THAT NOURISHES AESTHETIC AWARENESS AND PROMOTES EMOTIONAL DETACHMENT.
SO PHOTOGRAPHY IS CLEARLY THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE PLASTIC ARTS. SIMULTANEOUSLY A LIBERATION AND AN ACCOMPLISHMENT, IT HAS FREED WESTERN PAINTING, ONCE AND FOR ALL, FROM ITS OBSESSION WITH REALISM AND ALLOWED IT TO RECOVER ITS AESTHETIC AUTONOMY.
PHOTOGRAPHY CAN EVEN SURPASS ART IN CREATIVE POWER.
André Bazin was the greatest film critic of his generation. In 1945 Bazin wrote an essay entitled ‘The Ontology of the Photographic Image’. ‘Ontology’ is that branch of philosophy concerned with the study of being, and of the different kinds of being that entities might have, so to discuss the ontological status of photography is to consider what particular kind of thing a photograph is.
According to Bazin, today no one recognizes the ontological link between the body and a representation: “No one believes any longer in the ontological identity of model and image, but all are agreed that the image helps us to remember the subject and to preserve him from a second spiritual death”. The arts no longer care about survival after death. Instead, the focus on “the creation of an ideal world in the likeness of the real, with its own temporal identify.”
Bazin’s thoughts have been echoed by several subsequent writers on the nature of photography, including Susan Sontag (On Photography, 1977) and Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida, 1980). Indeed, on the very first page, Barthes writes of the book’s genesis that he “was overcome by an ‘ontological’ desire: I wanted to learn at all costs what photography was ‘in itself’.”
FOR THE PHOTOGRAPH'S IMMOBILITY IS SOMEHOW THE RESULT OF A PERVERSE CONFUSION BETWEEN TWO CONCEPTS: THE REAL AND THE LIVE
TO PHOTOGRAPH PEOPLE IS TO VIOLATE THEM AS THEY NEVER SEE THEMSELVES, BY HAVING KNOWLEDGE OF THEM THEY CAN NEVER HAVE; IT TURNS PEOPLE INTO OBJECTS THAT CAN BE SYMBOLICALLY POSSESSED.
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A BAD PHOTOGRAPH-ONLY LESS INTERESTING, LESS RELEVANT, LESS MYSTERIOUS ONES.
NO MATTER HOW SKILLFUL THE PAINTER, HIS WORK WAS ALWAYS IN FEE TO AN INESCAPABLE SUBJECTIVI-TY. THE FACT THAT A HUMAN HAND INTERVENED CAST A SHADOW OF DOUBT OVER THE IMAGE.
LIFE IS NOT ABOUT SIGNIFICANT DETAILS, ILLUMINATED A FLASH, FIXED FOREVER. PHOTOGRAPHS ARE.
THE PHOTOGRAPH IS LITERALLY AN EMANATION OF THE REFERENT. FROM A REAL BODY, WHICH WAS THERE, PROCEED RADIATIONS WHICH ULTIMATELY TOUCH ME, WHO AM HERE; THE DURATION OF THE TRANSMISSION IS INSIGNIFICANT.
THE AESTHETIC QUALITIES OF PHOTOGRAPHY ARE TO BE SOUGHT IN ITS POWER TO LAY BARE THE REALITIES.
PHOTOGRAPHS REALLY ARE EXPERIENCE CAPTURED, AND THE CAMERA IS THE IDEAL ARM OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN ITS ACQUISITIVE MOOD.
WHEN WE DEFINE THE PHOTOGRAPH AS A MOTIONLESS IMAGE, THIS DOES NOT MEAN ONLY THAT THE FIGURES IT REPRESENTS DO NOT MOVE; IT MEANS THAT THEY DO NOT EMERGE, DO NOT LEAVE: THEY ARE ANESTHETIZED AND FASTENED DOWN, LIKE BUTTERFLIES.
PHOTOGRAPHY IS NOT PRACTICED BY MOST PEOPLE AS AN ART. IT IS MAINLY A SOCIAL RITE, A DEFENSE AGAINST ANXIETY, AND A TOOL OF POWER.
PHOTOGRAPHY DEVELOPS IN TANDEM WITH ONE OF THE MOST CHARACTERISTIC OF MODERN ACTIVITIES: TOURISM.
THE PHOTOGRAPH THEN BECOMES A BIZARRE MEDIUM, A NEW FORM OF HALLUCINATION: FALSE ON THE LEVEL OF PERCEPTION, TRUE ON THE LEVEL OF TIME
TO TAKE A PHOTOGRAPH IS TO PARTICIPATE IN ANOTHER PERSON'S MORTALITY, VULNERABILIT Y, MUTABILITY. PRECISELY BY SLICING OUT THIS MOMENT AND FREEZING It ALL PHOTOGRAPHS TESTIFY TO TIME'S RELENTLESS MELT.
THIS PRODUCTION BY AUTOMATIC MEANS HAS RADICALLY AFFECTED OUR PSYCHOLOGY OF THE IMAGE. THE OBJECTIVE NATURE OF PHOTOGRAPHY CONFERS ON IT A QUALITY OF CREDIBILITY ABSENT FROM ALL OTHER PICTURE-MAKING.
FOR PHOTOGRAPHY DOES NOT CREATE ETERNITY, AS ART DOES, IT EMBALMS TIME, RESCUING IT SIMPLY FROM ITS PROPER CORRUPTION.
'THE NECESSARY CONDITION FOR AN IMAGE IS SIGHT, UANOUCH TOLD KAFKA; AND KAFKA SMILED AND REPLIED: 'WE PHOTOGRAPH THINGS IN ORDER TO DRIVE THEM OUT OF OUR MINDS. MY STORIES ARE A WAY OF SHUTTING MY EYES.
PHOTOGRAPHS CANNOT CREATE A MORAL POSITION, BUT THEY CAN REINFORCE ONE-AND CAN HELP BUILD A NASCENT ONE.
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Camera Lucida simultaneously is an inquiry into the nature and essence of photography and a eulogy to Barthes' late mother. The book investigates the effects of photography on the spectator as distinct from the photographer, and also from the object photographed, which Barthes calls the "spectrum".
SO PHOTOGRAPHY IS CLEARLY THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE PLASTIC ARTS. SIMULTANEOUSLY A LIBERATION AND AN ACCOMPLISHMENT, IT HAS FREED WESTERN PAINTING, ONCE AND FOR ALL, FROM ITS OBSESSION WITH REALISM AND ALLOWED IT TO RECOVER ITS AESTHETIC AUTONOMY.
THE PICTURE MAY DISTORT; BUT THERE IS ALWAYS A PRESUMPTION THAT SOMETHING EXISTS, OR DID EXIST, WHICH IS LIKE WHAT'S IN THE PICTURE.
I FEEL THAT THE PHOTOGRAPH CREATES MY BODY OR MORTIFIES It ACCORDING TO ITS CAPRICE.
PHOTOGRAPHS ARE A WAY OF IMPRISONING REALITY...ONE CAN'T POSSESS REALITY, ONE CAN POSSESS IMAGES--ONE CAN'T POSSESS THE PRESENT BUT ONE CAN POSSESS THE PAST.
I WANT A HISTORY OF LOOKING. FOR THE PHOTOGRAPH IS THE ADVENT OF MYSELF AS OTHER: A CUNNING DISSOCIATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS FROM IDENTITY.
THE POWER OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND ITS CENTRALITY IN PRESENT AESTHETIC CONCERNS IS THAT IT CONFIRMS BOTH IDEAS OF ART. BUT THE WAY IN WHICH PHOTOGRAPHY RENDERS ART OBSOLETE IS, IN THE LONG RUN, STRONGER.
IN ORDER TO SURPRISE, PHOTOGRAPHS THE NOTABLE; BUT SOON, BY A FAMILIAR REVERSAL, IT DECREES NOTABLE WHATEVER IT PHOTOGRAPHS. THE 'ANYTHING WHATEVER' THEN BECOMES THE SOPHISTICATED ACME OF VALUE.
THE WESTERN MEMORY MUSEUM IS NOW MOSTLY A VISUAL ONE.
WE ARE FORCED TO ACCEPT AS REAL THE EXISTENCE OF THE OBJECT REPRODUCED, ACTUALLY REPRESENTED, THAT IS TO SAY, IN TIME AND SPACE.
PHOTOGRAPHS STATE THE INNOCENCE, THE VULNERABILITY OF LIVES HEADING TOWARD THEIR OWN DESTRUCTION, AND THIS LINK BETWEEN PHOTOGRAPHY AND DEATH HAUNTS ALL PHOTOGRAPHS OF PEOPLE.
AFTER THE EVENT HAS ENDED, THE PICTURE WILL STILL EXIST, CONFERRING ON THE EVENT A KIND OF IMMORTALITY (AND IMPORTANCE) IT WOULD NEVER OTHERWISE HAVE ENJOYED.
LIFE IS NOT ABOUT SIGNIFICANT DETAILS, ILLUMINATED A FLASH, FIXED FOREVER. PHOTOGRAPHS ARE.