Five Notes for a Phenomenology of the Photographic Image Author(s): Hubert Damisch Source: October, Vol.5, Photography (Summer, 1978), pp. 70-72 Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778645 . Accessed: 11/05/2013 00:31 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . The MIT Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to October. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 93.172.127.34 on Sat, 11 May 2013 00:31:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions We know of printsobtained fromfilmdirectly exposed to a source.neitherassumes theuse of a generatedby a ray of light.172. a reading of essences-on a cultural object.a stableimage a techniqueof inscribing. 1963. as we shall see. however. The reluctance one feels.Now. To considera documentof thissortlike any otherimage is to claim a bracketing ofall knowledge-and even.127. camera). produces experimental equivalent of a phenomenolowhich to the essence of the phenomenon under gical analysis purports grasp consideration that a to series of imaginaryvariations.nordoes itimply thattheimage obtainedis thatofan objector scenefrom the externalworld. HUBERT DAMISCH 1.34 on Sat. This definition. camera. And insofaras it successfully thenatureand function of thevery eliminatesone of thebasic elements idea of "photography"(thecamera it the an obscura. value of this The of endeavor is to a induce reflection on light prime type of thephotographicimage.Five Notes fora Phenomenologyof the PhotographicImage. recording. 11 May 2013 00:31:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions . of all prejudice-as to its genesis and It therefore followsthatthephotographicsituationcannotbe empiricalfunctions. defineda priori.a culturalobjectwhose being-in thephenomenological sense of theterm-cannot be dissociatedprecisely from itshistoricalmeaningand fromthe necessarilydatable project in which it originates. on an essence that is historicallyconstituted. Theoreticallyspeaking. we note. contingent aspects cannot be undertaken The photographic image does not belong to the natural world. thoughnot of a transcendental order. this image is characterized by the way in which it presentsitselfas the resultof an objective * Firstpublished in L'Arc (Paris). This content downloaded from 93. thefullpurviewof a photographicdocumentclearlyinvolvesa certain Moreover. It is a productof human labor. appear nevertheless as the conditions for apprehending the photographic image as such.in describingsuch images as phoof reflectingphetographs is a revealing indication of the difficulty the strict of sense an eidetic nomenologically-in experience. photographyis nothingotherthan a processof in an emulsion of silversalts. the division of its fundamentalcomponents from its merely in the absolute. by submitting phenomenon 2. numberof "theses" which. is in essencea deceit). as Sartrehas shown.which had been carefully corrected for"distortions" and adjusted for"errors.and theverylatentimage which they wereable to revealand of the develop.-ed. A or substance(and.172. 11 May 2013 00:31:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions . The lens itself. or ratherthe craft. (it being understoodthatevery In the case of photography. photographybelatedlybroughtan unexpectedrevivalof current of photographynot consist partly in (Would the art. (Beginningin the 11thcentury. arbitrarycharacter. the successiveadepts of the Daguerreotype." which definesthe photographic situation. however. This is the constitutive deceptionof thephotographicimage image.to fix the images which "spontaneously" formedon the ground of the camera obscura. explains how the photographicrepresentation generallyappeared as a matterof course. it complies with an especially familiarthoughvery old and delapidatedsystem of spatial construction. photographers werehoping to seize. oi the supposition of "reality. thephotographiccamera. The adventureof photography to retainthatimage he had long known how to begins with man's first attempts make.and why one ignores its highly elaborated. were in no sense naturallygiven. the image of which inscribesitself.In its structure and in the ordered image of the world it achieves. thatwe read withoutdisclaiming thenotion thatit retains fromwhich it was somehowreleasedthroughits physiosomethingof thereality chemical make-up."is scarcely as objective*as it seems. entirely unreal).thattheimage the first One forgets. and those innumerable inventorswho made photography what it is today. and the completelyobjective.withoutdirecthuman in thegelatinous substancecoveringthe support. Arab astronomers probablyused thecamera obscura to observe solar eclipses. And herewe return to thatobject which we got rid of a littletoo quickly: theblack box. in a photographis this paradoxical image. withoutthickness way. in the process.34 on Sat.farmore subtle and insidious. Imprintedby rays of light on a plate or sensitivefilm. Niepce. they wanted. us to that the black box is not "neutral" and thatits structure is allowing forget not impartial?) * The play here is on the Frenchword forlens: objectif. thehistory of photography is mostfrequently as that presented of a discovery. In discussions of the inventionof film.71 (or process. were not actually concerned to create a new type of image or to determinenovel modes of representation.127.Here is thesource intervention.that is to say automatic or in any case strictlymechanical. 3. thesesigns?) must appear as the verytraceof an object or a scene fromthe real world. This content downloaded from 93. the principles of construction camera-and of the camera obscura before it-were tied to a photographic conventionalnotion of space and of objectivity whose development precededthe inventionof photography. rather. to which interest.thesefigures better perhaps.) This long familiaritywith an image so produced. appearance of the recording process. and to which thegreatmajority ofphotographers only conformed.this ontological deceptioncarrieswith it a historicaldeceit. to certain Seurats-an incomparable image which makes one dream of a photographicsubstancedistinctfromsubject matter. its development and multiplication.Photographic activity.only thoseimages throughthechannelsof publishing. image. production.thatthisact would find tion. but still. or so to speak.34 on Sat.industrial. But it is importantto note that even when it gives us. emergentaspect. Photography aspires to arteach time.unsuited to mass consumption.127.on theglass of the cameraobscura-a image Nicephore Niepce fixed threatened so in and its fragile. taken as a itsgoal in reproducwhole. 5. So thatphotography'scontribution.sinceit could providenothingbut a by Daguerrewas doomed from to use the termsof classical unique image). much the way the point of filmas spectaclewas establishedfromthe start. formof craft.and this implies thatof all is nonetheless. (It is no accidentthat the most beautifulphotographso farachieved is possiblythe first in 1822.in practice. Historydetermined. throughits physical nature.Photography nothingof "use" (aside from it scientific rather down the applications). The retention ordered succession of steps which composed the photographic act. close its organization.its granulartexture.solicitingin us theproducerratherthan the consumerof images. "predigested.72 OCTOBER of the image. each time it uncoversthe contingent character of thesethings. however.advertising. the character-wears images photographic one-leaving aside its documentary out the most quickly. and of an artin which light createsits own metaphor. and thepress."this industry fulfills theinitial photographicproject:thecapturingand restoration of an image already worn beyond repair. inventorsworked to fiximages and simultaneouslyto (We know that the first which is whytheprocessperfected develop techniquesfortheirmass distribution. thevery outset. which are already half consumed.properlyspeaking.it calls intoquestion its essence and its historicalroles.) This content downloaded from 93. than on thatof creates its marginaland consumption.forman 4. level of is less on the economy.172. even though it generallytakes the destruction in principle. lays premisesofan unbridled primarily of utility. 11 May 2013 00:31:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions .
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