Photography: Irrelevant or Indispensable? Pictorial Science from the Perspective of Photography

摘要

The digital revolution has given new vigor to the popular belief in pictures as "true" representations of reality. Photography, seen early on as an instrument of scientific objectivity, has always been a cornerstone of this erroneous idea. Two disciplines of the Bildwissenschaft at Humboldt University, cultural science and art history, approach the fallacy from different positions. Friedrich Kittler, from a cultural history perspective, holds that new technologies abolish previous ones (e.g., digital kills analog photography). Horst Bredekamp draws upon the accumulated pictorial knowledge of art history to claim that the even new media imagery is only understood in the light of tradition. Both approaches fall short of fully grasping the implications of picture production and reception becoming a mass phenomenon. Art seems to be one step ahead of theory. It reflects media promises, mixing old and new technology: there is no increase in authenticity.