Le corps et ses fantomes. (The body and its ghosts)

Subtitled: Notes on some photographic concoctions in scientific
iconography in the second half of the 19th century. The author
states that this article is fragmented, and consists of so
called 'working-notes' and prelude on a much further reaching
theoretical project intitled ""Video ergo non sum'' (I see
therefor I am not). This title-precept works two formulas: the
cartesian ""cogito'' and Berkeley's ""percept''. One proposes a
subject in the act of thinking, the other places the subject on
the side of the object, the being perceived (not the perceiver).
The thesis presented here argues that the photographic apparatus
is bent upon the reconciliation of thinking and being so that
both of these become the defining categories of the subject. But
one must add a third term: that of believing, or producing
belief, in other words, that of visibility as the basis for
credibility. Seeing, thinking, believing. The section published
here is concerned with photography, in particular its revelation
of the spectral body. The author deals with four examples: the
shroud of Turin, photographed 1898 by Secondo Pia; Balzac's
theory of spectres and the death photograph; the optogram,
photograph of the retina of a murdered women in 1868; and Dr.
Baraduc's efforts to photograph the human soul. The author ends
with some remarks on Benjamin's notion of the ""aura''. (Revised
Author's Abstract) (French)