Extract

1Experiencing photography, doing phenomenology

Before approaching a Heideggerian account of photographic practice, it is useful to briefly outline some of the philosophical tropes that have dominated discussions about photography over the last 150 years. These have been less phenomenological and more Cartesian in character, emphasizing the link between ‘thinking and seeing, visual perception and certainty’1. Descartes was of the belief that sight was the ‘noblest of the senses…there is no doubt that inventions which serve to augment its power are among the most useful that there can be’2. This led to the photograph representing the positivist ideal of objectivity, a form of absolute truth in everyday life3. Although recent scholarship, particularly with the advent of digital photography and the internet, has moved away from this idea4 the adage of ‘not believing something until you see it’ still resonates deeply in 21st century, an era characterized by pervasive photography practices5. Although photographs were often portrayed as explicit documents of reality this was a self-made myth. At their very inception, images are always a deliberate construction; they are an account of how the photographer wishes to represent or frame the scene in front of the lens.

Framing a scene is more than just optical awareness: ‘the essence of the image is to be altogether outside, without intimacy’6. By the same association, the photographer has also been seen as a distant and detached observer which is perhaps ←101 | 102→the reason that there has been considerably...