Photography and imagination
DOI :
https://doi.org/10.17161/aion.v2i1.24016Mots-clés :
photography, imagination, “That-has-been”, fiction, nothingnessRésumé
This article is written from the standpoint of a photographer. It does not offer a systematic approach to the relationship between photography and imagination, nor does it advance a specific thesis. The ontological identity of photography – its singular way of affirming a presence – serves as the point of departure: it is this fundamental trait that appears to determine imagination. Drawing on concrete cases, the text explores how this specificity can give rise to different imaginative acts: whether in the form of a sensory experience (tactile, olfactory, auditory); or in the reverie of wishing to cross into and inhabit the interior of a photograph; or in the attempt to fictionalize it; or, finally, in the mode of material imagination – the Bachelardian imagination. In a final, contrary movement, the photograph is considered inaccessible, blocking imagination – the image in which photography’s specificity seems no longer to have a place.
Références
Bachelard, G., 1978 (1957), La poétique de l’espace, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France.
Bachelard, G., 1986 (1948), La terre et les rêveries du repôs – essai sur les images de l’Intimité, José Corti.
Bachelard, G, 1991 (1942), L’eau et les rêves – essai sur l’imagination da la Matière, Paris, José Corti.
Barthes, R., 1980, La chambre claire (Note sur la photographie), Paris, Cahiers du Cinéma, Gallimard, Seuil.
Barthes, R., 1982 (1961-1980), L’obvie et l’obtus, Essais critiques III, Paris, Éditions du Seuil.
Batchen, G., 1997, Burning with Desire: The Conception of Photography, Cambridge, Massachusetts, The MIT Press.
Bazin, A., 1958, Qu’est-ce que le cinema?, Paris, Les Éditions du Cerf.
Blanchot, M., 1955, L’espace littéraire, Paris, Éditions Gallimard.
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Sartre, J.-P., 1986 (1940), L’imaginaire – Psychologie phénoménologique de l’imagination, Paris, Éditions Gallimard.
Steiner, G., 2005, “Ten (Possible) Reasons for the Sadness of Thought”, in Salmagundi Quarterly of the Humanities, No. 146-147, pp. 3-32.
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(c) Copyright Henrique Loff Silva 2025
Ce travail est disponible sous licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International.
Copyright is held by the authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
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