Morning Frost ~ Fall 2009
What the photograph reproduces to infinity has occurred only once: the photograph mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existentially.
Roland Barthes
The photograph is an artifact of an existential event, not the event itself. The image re-presents a moment frozen in time, a moment that can only occur once, that infinitely brief moment in which one scratches the surface of the ineffable thereby embedding traces of the existential moment in one’s conscious mind. The event occurred, the photographer captured that moment (actually as near to that moment as possible because there is an ever so brief physical time differential from decision to snap the shutter and the actual physical snapping of the shutter) that is always already gone.
By re-presenting through object of the photographic image, printed or digitally reproduced, the moment that once was is reduced to the four corners of the image itself, a poor cousin of the actual event. The photographic image removes the actual event from existential time thereby allowing for constant repetitions of the frozen moment to be re-presented to a host of anonymous viewers, most of whom have not and never will have direct contact with the photographer. The only connection between creator and viewer is the link created by the image itself.
The image provides some insight into both the photographer and the viewer. The photographer reveals something unspoken about him or her self. The act of choosing a particular image, printing that image, presenting the image to the other to view and interpret as one might, reveals something about the image maker as one tries to imagine motivation for making the image, the intent behind the silence of the image itself. Once the choices are made, the image maker withdraws from the process opening the door for the other to peek into the creative process, the vision that inspired the image. The viewer makes whatever connections to the photograph as his or her experience allows. It is conceivable that there are an infinite number of connections that may be made with any photographic image. That is the power of the archive.
The Morning Frost ~ Fall 2009 by Roger Passman, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
