Photography, Truth and Art

1. In “The Ontology of the Photographic Image,” Bazin argues that photography and cinema “satisfy, once and for all and in its very essence, our obsession with realism.” Do we really have an obsession with realism, and if it is satisfied by photography, how could abstract art satisfy us at all?

Our obsession with realism stems from our absolute obsession with truth. For example, how many times have you seen movies try to gain credibility with the words, “Based on a true story,” or heard someone say, “that’s so true” as a complement? There are many psychological principles that could help explain why truth is so important to us, but one of them could be the human need for common experience. In order for us to not feel totally alone in the universe, we need to know that we share common beliefs, experiences, and sensations. Realism in art could be seen as a way for people to share their common visual perceptions of reality. Abstract art, meanwhile, could be seen as a way to make emotions and very subtle sensations, a common experience that binds people together. For example, Pollock’s drip paintings convey a certain feeling of violence, but what would it mean if you had never experienced feelings of violence, if violence was not part of your truth.


2. In “Photography”, Kracauer writes, “With the increasing independence of the technology and the simultaneous evacuation of meaning from the objects, artistic photography loses its justification; it grows not into an artwork but into its imitation.” Is photography able to go beyond “skillful emulation of familiar styles?”

I am really having trouble with this idea that photography obliterates meaning, because it seems to imply that meaning cannot be found in the real world, that is has to be invented and inserted into images by artists. I also do not agree that photography is only an imitation of art, because both could be seen as imitating nature and human experiences. Also, photography, because it is so much less labor intensive and time-consuming, has been able to go where traditional art forms had never gone before, such as macro photography. Ultimately, this quote seems to suggest that photography is not artistic, though if we go back to the quote that art “makes the phenomena strange”, photography clearly does this.