Engenhos de Visualização e “Modos de Ver”: um outro discurso sobre a arché fotográfica

Abstract

The article intends to examine certain questions on the contemporary theories of photography that deals with the technical variables of the origin of photographic visual meaning: these theories develop what we shall thereby call ärguments on the apparatus”, which are still very influential in the ways adopted to access the semiotical features of these images, above all stressing out the ontological features of some assumed “photographic nature”, always connected with its technological apparatus. We seek to examine the guidelines of such a discourse, departing from the relationships between two of the most important trends in theories of photography, one more connected with pragmatics of visual experience (represented by Jean-Marie Schaeffer‟s imortant essay, L‟Image Précaire) and the debate on the representational character of photography (in a series of writings published between the 70‟s and 80‟s in Critical Inquiry).

Keywords

• Photography
• Visual discourse
• Apparatus