Photography, Phenomenology and Sight: Toward an Understanding of Photography through the Discourse of Vision

Understanding photography can be a complicated prospect sometimes. Even photographs that appear to be direct and transcriptive can be complicated. Numerous cultural and technological discourses are involved in the creation of even the most basic photographs. The overwhelming shift in photographic technology from traditional materials to digital technologies is not the cause of this, but it makes the complex interactions more evident.;Because acts of vision occur in the production and reception of nearly every single photograph, connections between vision, photography and the discourse of vision are an essential part of understanding photography. The primary research question investigated is: What relationships between vision and knowledge, consciousness and subjectivity are described in the discourse of vision, and how do they relate to photography?;Discourse analysis is the methodology used to consider interrelations between the three major strands of the discourse of vision: modernist vision, phenomenological vision, and postmodern vision. How each strand characterizes the act of seeing, and the stated or implied subject-object dynamic are also closely examined. A major focus is investigating the potential phenomenology offers as an alternate philosophical vantage point for understanding vision and photography.;To consider the unique understandings generated when looking at photography through each of these discourse strands, photographs by artists Thomas Demand, Kelli Connell; photojournalists Olivier Jobard, and Alex Webb; students, and other non-artists are critically examined. These analyses give tangible form to the abstract theories of vision. Finally the research raises questions concerning photography education and the possibilities offered by a phenomenological approach toward photography and looks toward ways digital photography might be visualized as an ontologically productive form of seeing.