Philosophers and Photography

<p>I thought it might be useful for this forum to have a list of philosophers who had something to say about photography or were photographers. Are Szarkowski or Sontag philosophers? Or were they critics and historians? I think Garry Winogrand was a philosopher of photography, but do not include him in this list. I guess by 'philosopher' I mean someone whose reputation is 'philosopher' or whose work was doing philosophy, but this isn't about who to exclude. Name who you think fits the bill.</p>

<p>So, let's begin a list of philosophers and their books or essays on photography. I'll list the title I've read. Please expand.</p>

<p>Franz Kafka. I'm not familar with his work and can't cite a title, but: http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/LiteratureEnglish/WorldLiterature/Germany/?view=usa&ci=9780199219452</p>

<p>Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida</p>

<p>Jean Baudrillard, Photographies 1985-1998; Photography or the Writing of Light</p>

<p>Jacques Derrida, Right of Inspection</p>

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<p> Vilem Flusser, <em> _Towards a Philosophy of Photography_</em></p>

<p>Scott Walden (ed.), <em>Photography and Philosophy: Essays on the Pencil of Nature (13 essays by philosophers on photography). <br /></em></p>

<p>Thomas Merton was a Monk ~ an accomplished Philosopher and Book writer ~ and an accomplished Photographer</p>

<p>Minor White.</p>

<p>Alfred Stieglitz.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/citation.cfm?Catalog=ZB362">L'Autre</a>, Luc Delahaye / text <a href="http://www.ubishops.ca/BaudrillardStudies/vol2_1/butler.htm">Jean Baudrillard</a><br /> Photographers who are philosophers ? Like Minor White, Duane Michals,...all of us...</p>

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<p>Einstein said enough on light to be counted, no? Although, he seems to be more a subject of photos than a photographer....;-)</p>

<p>Seriously, when is one a philosopher? In university I had a course shared with philosophy students, and most of them were pretty much reproducing thoughts. Yet, while graduated, are they philosophers?</p>

<p>All the world is a stage to both philosophize and photograph.<br>

www.PoseMode.com</p>

<p>What about Henri Cartier-Bresson? I wouldn't say that he was a philosopher of photography but his famous essay "the decisive moment" tells us a lot about his approach to photography.</p>

<p>Cartier-Bresson studied painting with Andre Lhote in Paris when he was trying to break away from being a "mere photographer." He thought painters were taken more seriously. Lhote was a philosopher and theorist, and was considered by some of the leading Cubists to be a coherent spokesman for the ideas behind the movement. I believe it was Robert Capa who challenged Cartier-Bresson to finally take his photojournalism seriously and leave his surrealism etc behind. <br>

The rest is history. With a modicum of philosophy. <br>

Towards the end of his life Cartier-Bresson took up drawing again, quite seriously. He said that he would see something that would have made a good photo, and realize he had already taken it at least once in his career. I doubt a painter would say such a thing.<br>

To me this speaks to the issue of the semiotics of photography...that is, the formalism involved in creating a certain "sign" does not need to be repeated over and over...the sign becomes conventionalized, and the work is done. A painting can never be reduced to its formal semiotics, its "meaning" in a system of conventionalized referents, because the facture, or physicality, of the media at the moment of creation is a dominant part of the experience of both creating, and witnessing, the work...and no two such experiences are the same. All stop signs, however, are the same. As are all photos of a dog licking a little girl's ice cream cone while she is distracted.<br>

There are many ways a photographer can try to secure the existential uniqueness of the moment of creation, or the process of creation, but the ratio of control to not-control, or wu wei as the Chinese express it, is always heavily tilted toward control in photography. If it isn't, it isn't photography. It is print making...a sibling of painting, with one foot on the path of commercial viability, repeatability, and ultimately, semiotics.<br>

I doubt I will last long around here breaking in and making such proclamations, but I was following the title of the thread at the expense of the posts themselves. Please take my good faith on...good faith.</p>

<p>What's a philosopher? Anyways, if one must have a list, it seems you'd have to include Susan Sontag [sp]. Read her compiled essays in the book "On Photography". </p>

<p>What's a philosopher? Anyways, if one must have a list, it seems you'd have to include Susan Sontag [sp]. Read her compiled essays in the book "On Photography". </p>