Ueberlegungen zu einer Soziologie der Fotografie. (Contemplations on a Sociology of Photography)

The first part of the article contains some methodological considerations on a
historical sociology of photographic culture and on the light this might shed
on contemporary culture in general. Photography as an object of sociological
research should be studied at two different levels: a demystifying of the
ideologies that come from photographic practice itself, and, secondly, a
scientific analysis of the interpretations developed by various disciplines
when studying photography. On this basis the author then discusses the
following topics: photography as document and interpretant; photographer as
documenter and interpreter; semantic levelling by the mass of visual images;
photography as an act of violence; connections photography has with 'Sehnsucht'
and 'Death'; photographic history as a struggle between two imperatives) the
aesthetic and the objective; photography and art; photography and
communication; criticism of photography (Benjamin, Merlau-Ponty, Adorno,
Barthes) and the personal snapshot. (German)


Citaten:
Barthes, R.
Benjamin, W.
Merlau-Ponty
Adorno