The particularity of photographic experience

Bibliographic Data

ID20142595
AuthorsRené Jagnow (0000-0002-2309-3575, University of Georgia Athens Georgia USA, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume89
Issue2
Pages216-231
Publication date2023-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTheoria (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0040-5825 • E-ISSN: 1755-2567
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/theo.12457
OpenAlexW4319322075
LanguageEN
References cited55

A common view in the philosophy of perception holds that states of seeing objects face to face have particular contents. When you see, say, a dog face to face, your visual state represents the particular dog that is in front of you. In this paper, I argue for a related claim about states of seeing objects in conventional photographs. When you see a dog in a photograph, for example, your visual state represents the particular dog that was in front of the camera when the photograph was taken, that is, the photograph's depictum. The argument in this paper proceeds in two steps. In the first step, I discuss states of seeing objects face to face. I argue that such a state represents the particular object whose surface is responsible for the optical information that the visual system uses to construct the state's attributive representational content. In the second step, I apply the result of this discussion to states of seeing objects in photographs. I argue that a state of seeing an object in a photograph has a particular content that represents the object that was in front of the camera when the photograph was taken

Algorithm · Argument (complex analysis) · Art · Attributive · Computer vision · Construct (python library) · Face (sociological concept) · Front (military) · Linguistics · Object (grammar) · Photography · State (computer science) · Visual arts · Aesthetic Perception and Analysis · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Philosophy · Photography and Visual Culture · Visual Culture and Art Theory

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