The Photograph as Post-Industrial Object: An Essay on the Ontological Standing of Photographs

Photos, as they are now—namely sheets of paper or a similar material carrying information on their surfaces—are objects of post-industrial culture, one in which work is done by automatic apparatus. In the not far distant future, photos will become images appearing on electromagnetic screens; thus they will illustrate a future culture of pure, immaterial information, one in which society will be busy elaborating what is now called ‘software’. The difference between the two cultures is that objects will no longer occupy the center of attention in the future one. This will involve not only a transvaluation of all values but a mutation in human existence.