Fotografia na rozdrożach
Photography at the Crossroads.

Albertian and Keplerian Pictures in the Context of Roland Barthes’ Conception of Photography

Summary/Abstract: What is the connection between photography and reality? Do we have to choose between describing photography in terms of the process of its production or questioning its reference to reality, as Barthes argues?Jonathan Friday suggests a similar alternative, which is however constructed on a different methodological level. He argues that photography can be described on the basis of two types of representation: Albertian and Keplerian. First one refers to a fictional world, whereas the other one refers to reality. While it is possible that a type of representation is connected with properties of a medium, eventually it remains a matter of convention. It turns out then that it is possible to speak about the relation between photography and the world without referring to the mechanical process of its production. This however comes at a price: as the discussed relation becomes conventional it ceases to constitute a specific character of photography.

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