Abstract
Bazin, Cavell and other prominent theorists have asserted that movies are essentially photographic, with more recent scholars such as Carroll and Gaut protesting. Today CGI stands as a further counter, in addition to past objections such as editing, animation and blue screen. Also central in debates is whether photography is transparent, that is, whether it allows us to see things in other times and places. I maintain photography is transparent, notwithstanding objections citing digital manipulation. However, taking a cue from Cavell—albeit one poorly outlined in his work—I argue this is not so much because of what photography physically is, but because of what “photography” has come to mean. I similarly argue digital technologies have not significantly altered what cinematic media “are” because they have not fundamentally modified what they mean; and that cinema retains a photographic legacy, even when it abandons photographic technologies to digitally manufacture virtual worlds.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alcaraz, Aleksandra Łukaszewicz. 2015. Epistemic Function and Ontology of Analog and Digital Images. Contemporary Aesthetics 13: 1–14.
Atencia-Linares, Paloma. 2012. Fiction, Nonfiction, and Deceptive Photographic Representation. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 70: 19–30.
Bazin, André. 1951/1967. Theatre and Cinema—Part Two. In What is Cinema?, trans. Hugh Gray, 95–124. Berkeley: UC Press.
Benovsky, Jiri. 2014. The Limits of Photography. International Journal of Philosophical Studies 22: 716–733.
Cameron, Evan. 2004. From Plato to Socrates: Wittgenstein’s Journey on Collingwood’s Map. AE: Canadian Aesthetics Journal 10: 1–30.
Carroll, Noël. 1996. Theorizing the Moving Image. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Carroll, Noël. 2008. The Philosophy of Motion Pictures. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Cavell, Stanley. 1979. The World Viewed, enlarged edition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Cooper, Stephen D. 2007. A Concise History of the Fauxtography Blogstorm in the 2006 Lebanon War. The American Communication Journal 9: 1–34.
Crippen, Matthew. 2010. William James on belief: Turning Darwinism Against Empiricistic Skepticism. Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 46: 477–502.
Crippen, Matthew. 2015. Pictures, experiential learning and phenomenology. In Visual Learning, vol. 5: Saying by Showing, Showing by Saying – Pictures, Parables, Paradoxes, ed. András Benedek and Kristof Nyiri, 83–90. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Publishers.
Crippen, Matthew. 2016. Screen Performers Playing Themselves. British Journal of Aesthetics 56: 163–177.
Gaut, Berys. 2010. A Philosophy of Cinematic Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Goldberg, Susan, Editor in Chief. 2016. How We Check What You See. National Geographic 230, n.p. [editorial precedes pagination].
Jarvie, Ian. 1987. Philosophy of the Film: Epistemology, Ontology, Aesthetics. London: Routledge.
Mullarkey, John. 2009. Philosophy and the Moving Image: Refractions of Reality. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Pudovkin, Vsevolod. 1926/1970. Film Technique. In Film Technique and Film Acting, ed. and trans. Ivor Montagu, 19–220. New York: Grove Press.
Safi, Michael. 2016. Indian Couple Banned from Climbing After Faking Ascent of Everest. The Guardian, 30 August.
Santayana, George. c. 1900–1907/1967. The Photograph and the Mental Image, In Animal Faith and Spiritual Life: Previously Unpublished and Uncollected Writings of George Santayana with Critical Essays on his Thought, ed. John Lachs, 391–402. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Savedoff, Barbara. 2008. Documentary Authority and the Art of Photography. In Photography and Philosophy: Essays on the Pencil of Nature, ed. Scott Walden, 111–137. Malden: Blackwell.
Sesonske, Alexander. 1974. The World Viewed. The Georgia Review 28: 561–570.
Sontag, Susan (1973/2005). On Photography. New York: RosettaBooks LLC.
Walton, Kendal L. 1984. Transparent Pictures: On the Nature of Photographic Realism. Critical Inquiry 11: 246–247.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Crippen, M. (2019). Digital Fabrication and Its Meanings for Photography and Film. In: Braga, J. (eds) Conceiving Virtuality: From Art To Technology. Numanities - Arts and Humanities in Progress, vol 11. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24751-5_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24751-5_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-24750-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-24751-5
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)