Photographie und Geschichtswissenschaft. Teil II. (Photography and History, part 2)

It is the ambiguity of photography that is particularly
important for all serious attempts at reading the medium. The
medium's ambiguity is also a social phenomenon. In photography
the context is more important than in other media; this is due
not only to the caption and its 'a posteriori' interpretation,
but to the medium's social anchoring. There can be no doubt that
semiological/semiotical analysis represents an important
contribution to a theory of photography, because it succeeds in
distinguishing significant aspects and conceptualizing
interpretation. However, this approach failed to solve the
problem of ambiguity. The contradiction between wanting to
attribute a meaning to the individual image on the one hand and
doubting the possibility of an interpretation on the other hand,
can only be solved by taking both context and history into
account. Various ways and means of interpretation will be
required for an approach based on those sources which stress the
inherent knowledge strata rather than the intentional character.
The analysis of photographic documents will demand a critical
study of the sources focussing on the author, the problem of
authenticity and the additional documents available. In order to
grasp the general context of an individual image it will be
necessary to come to an understanding of photographic culture,
i.e. to comprehend the relationship between photography and
society. An investigation into the ways in which photography is
socially made use of thus promises to reveal deeper areas, at
least, of western social life. Abbreviated magazine summary.
(The editorial states that this article is a translation of the
original essay, published in ""Il Mondo Contemporaneo'', edited
by Nicola Transfaglia, published in 1981).


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