Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities

Critique of photography as rereading of the historical matter

Document Type : Original Research Paper

Author

M. Hasanpur

Assistant Professor in Art Research, Handicraft Department, Art College, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22035/isih.2023.4720.4648
Abstract
The connection between photography and history as the most important emerging interdisciplinary issue of the 19th century has been direct but challenging. The characteristics of both disciplines are present in cross-sectional recording of time, emphasis on the objectivity of time (historical text, and photographic record), and quality of reference to the past. After the invention of photography, however, the practice of historical review and retrieval of past memories found a product-oriented quality and and photographs revealed access to historical content as the touch of a seemingly simple everyday object. Therefore, in the present article, based on the historical analysis method, we try to give an ideological link to photography and history based on the views of 20th century philosophers and critics, and respond to this question: Which of the photographic characteristics has been present in the "evolution" and "advancement" of the contemporary history? The importance of this research lies in the fact that photography, while deeply connected to history, is virtually ubiquitous and accessible to the present media and the public, and that is why disciplines such as Modern Social History or Oral History might not have been able to spread without the advent of photography. The result is that the authenticity of historical data is linked to these photographic identities as evidence or an example for objective comparison, and in practice, history today as what happened in a particular time and space is always imbued with the essence of photographic references.

Keywords

photographic history
historical photographs
photographic critique
photography and history

Subjects

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  • Receive Date 11 March 2023
  • Revise Date 14 October 2023
  • Accept Date 01 July 2023

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