THE ONTOLOGY OF DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS AND IMAGES

Authors : Koray DEĞİRMENCİ

Pages : 553-571

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Publication Date : 2017-07-30

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This article attempts to understand the fate of conventional notions of photographic indexicality and referentiality in the digital era where digital images have replaced analog images almost completely. Following a critical overview of relevant literature on digital photography, the author makes a conceptual distinction between referentiality and indexicality with respect to their implications for the notion of photographic realism. With a particular focus on the concept of indexicality, defined herein as an element that radically determines the definition of photography, the author argues that the image becomes a “thing” in digital images in the absence of indexicality by using Jean-Paul Sartre’s notion of “illusion of immanence”, a claim that would strongly challenge the view that digital images can still be regarded as photographs that themselves presuppose a particular relationship between an image and its object. 
Keywords : Analog photography, digital photography, indexicality, referentiality, realism, simulation, illusion of immanence