Within 30 years (from 1839???) photography went from “ its invention as a gadget for the elite” to wide and varied use- from industry to academia to art. It could be witnessed by many.. but has only recently become more generally available to the masses (still spreading though), in a way we can personally engage with.
The photographic lens being equated to/ replacing human world view as Objective is interesting.. given the squareness and pixels and general deviance from human eyesight.
“The camera makes reality atomic, manageable, opaque… denies interconnectedness, continuity”
“it removes an appearence from the flow of appearences and preserves it, not perhaps for ever but for as long as the film exists” Nothing could do this before film, other than perhaps memory.
“photojournalism, whereby the text follows the pictures instead of vice versa.”
Photographs are.. unphenomenological memories? portraits and chance can align them to felt memories? Photographs do not necessarily preserve meaning. Personal photgraphs, such as an old portrait of a family member, have a context more similair to a memory, even more so photos of a past trip of ones.
‘public’ photographs, like one accompanying a foreign report “offer information, but information severed from lived experience.”
“What is remembered has been saved from nothingness. What is forgotten has been abandoned.”
“The camera relieves us of the burden of memory.” Does having information and “accurate recall” of events make memory and reflection less necessary/high priority? yes lol
under capitalism, photography functions as “a spectable (for masses) and an object of surveillance (for rulers).”
Photographs exist within time, live, when they influence people. “public” photos can be more healthy, less devisive, if “ the photographer thinks of themself not so much as a reporter to the rest of the world but, rather as a recorder for those involved in the events photographed.
Private/ public photography is dated in that there is not much wider scope, and less distinction, between different Types of photography. The motivation of sharable photos (selfies, holidays) is both to preserve memory but to be sharable. Externally attractive, and symbolic.
Spontaneous vs controlled photographs and the range between.
ual drawing! 