Reflecting, Registering, Recording and Representing: From Light Image to Photographic Picture

Wilson, Dawn

Abstract

Photography is valued as a medium for recording and visually reproducing features of the world. I seek to challenge the view that photography is fundamentally a recording process and that every photograph is a record — a view that I claim is based on a ‘single-stage’ misconception of the process. I propose an alternative, ‘multi-stage’ account in which I argue that causal registration of light is not equivalent to recording and reproducing an image. Intervention or non-intervention by photographers is more sophisticated than the traditional view allows. Using the multi-stage account, I describe four models for producing photographic images and pictures.

Citation

Wilson, D. (2022). Reflecting, Registering, Recording and Representing: From Light Image to Photographic Picture. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 122(2), 141-164. https://doi.org/10.1093/arisoc/aoac008

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 16, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Jul 22, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022-07
• Deposit Date: Aug 5, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 23, 2023
• Journal: Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society
• Print ISSN: 0066-7374
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 122
• Issue: 2
• Article Number: VII
• Pages: 141-164
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/arisoc/aoac008
• Keywords: Photograph; Recording; Image; Picture; Digital; Light; Technology
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4045440
• Additional Information: The accepted manuscript is embargoed until 20 July 2023 (12 months after publication of the version of record).