Photography and the World: The Total World and Many, Many Worlds

Most of all beware, even in thought, of assuming the sterile attitude of the spectator, for life is not a spectacle, a sea of grief is not a proscenium, a man who wails is not a dancing bear.

Aimé Césaire, Return to My Native Land

The end of the common world has come when it is seen only under one aspect and is permitted to present itself in only one perspective.

Hannah Arendt, Human Condition

Two visions—the world as our physical surroundings, and the world as constructed through our capacity to create meaning—have informed the work of photographers from its inception to this day. In order to make sense of contemporary image-creation and photography, it is useful to spell out these two conceptions of the world, as either the whole planet which we inhabit, or as the network of relations that lend meaning to our existence. This binary model is a useful way to approach and understand photography today. All photographic projects since the birth of the medium in 1839 can be classified heuristically as belonging to either one of these two conceptions of the world. Some photographers capture physical space either as the backdrop and stage for human existence, while others capture the network of human activities as the creation of divergent worlds of meaning. In one approach, the world is universal and a stage for human action. The resulting images are cut-outs from a larger reality that extends in all directions, past the frames. In the other approach, there is no world toward which one may direct a camera. The world emerges from and out of the network of human relations as a web of meaning, with many human beings as nodes but no single, overarching point of view.

The two conceptions are not radically divergent, of course. The distinct worlds created by individuals or groups—the worlds of the LGBT community in South Africa, of migrant workers in Beijing, and of high school proms in the U.S.—occur in the same physical space that others may also claim as the setting for their worlds. But these two conceptions differ sufficiently to shape how we live our lives and how we produce and look at images—that is, whether we see ourselves as cast into a world not of our own design, or see ourselves as the architects of our lives. The first, which allows for a wider worldview, has resulted in magnificently composed images in which details reveal larger patterns. The latter has resulted in poignant images in which details create meaning in relation to one another without creating an overarching vision, and often without fitting into a larger pattern. The distinction between these two ways of seeing the world, as either total or emerging, provides a useful heuristic to understand how photography, from its inception till today, creates meaning.

One World / Many Worlds

The current process of globalization is paradoxical. It connects different parts of the world but also underscores regional and local differences. Patterns of life and social structures that were once relatively independent are now visibly and critically intertwined. The circulation of objects, ease of travel, mass migration of labor, and rapid communication have dramatically impacted locally prescribed worlds. But while this global web of connections connects people, it also sharpens the distinction between worldviews, habits, customs, and ways of life. The world seems to come closer together but different life-worlds seem to drift further apart. In this era of globalization, we at once see the world in its full interdependence, but also recognize the human capacity to continually create distinct and distinctly new worlds.

The Image of the World

The lives of Brazilian mineworkers, Indian commuters, Sudanese cattle herders, North American strippers, students in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, squatters living in the condemned parts of Chernobyl, Chinese factory girls: photography can introduce us to other, faraway and inaccessible worlds found on the planet.

Pictures may even remind people of a shared humanity. The way this works is by placing the viewer...