Invisible Images and Indeterminacy: Why We Need a Multi-stage Account of Photography

Wilson, Dawn M.

Abstract

Some photographs show determinate features of a scene because the photographed scene had those features. This dependency relation is, rightly, a consensus in philosophy of photography. I seek to refute many long-established theories of photography by arguing that they are incompatible with this commitment. In Section II, I classify accounts of photography as either single-stage or multi-stage. In Section III, I analyze the historical basis for single-stage accounts. In Section IV, I explain why the single-stage view led scientists to postulate "latent"photographic images as a technical phenomenon in early chemical photography. In Section V, I discredit the notion of an invisible latent image in chemical photography and, in Section VI, extend this objection to the legacy of the latent image in digital photography. In Section VII, I appeal to the dependency relation to explain why the notion of a latent image makes the single-stage account untenable. Finally, I use the multi-stage account to advance debate about "new"versus "orthodox"theories of photography.

Citation

Wilson, D. M. (2021). Invisible Images and Indeterminacy: Why We Need a Multi-stage Account of Photography. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 79(2), 161-174. https://doi.org/10.1093/jaac/kpab005

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 9, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Apr 19, 2021
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2021
• Deposit Date: Jan 8, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 2, 2023
• Journal: Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
• Print ISSN: 0021-8529
• Electronic ISSN: 1540-6245
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 79
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 161-174
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jaac/kpab005
• Keywords: Philosophy of Photography; Camera Obscura; Latent Image; Invisible; Digital; Causal Dependence; Indeterminacy; New Theory; Multi-stage.
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3686748