Photography and Belief (Levi Strauss, 2020)
David Levi Strauss interrogates the concept that “seeing is believing”. He suggests the proverb “Seeing is Believing” dates back to 1609 and is of an Anglo-Saxon origin, “to believe is to hold dear“; I’d not thought about its origin before. His definition of belief is a “strong agreement of the intellect, but the intervention of the will is always required to convince the intellect to agree.” (Levi Strauss, 2020:11).
In chapter 2 he considers various theories of truth in photography.
He shares that:
- Walter Benjamin suggested that early surrealist photography enabled a politically schooled gaze, where details are illuminated and “signalled a shift to a blasphemous belief in the thing itself”.
- Berger however suggests that in late capitalism all that exist becomes quantifiable both because it can be reduced to a statistical fact and a commodity. Berger said that photographs are said to be truthful as there is no distinction made between them as scientific evidence and as a means of communication. He says that this isn’t an oversight but a proposal “when something is visible, it is a fact, and that facts contain the only truth”. Apparently Berger distinguishes between what the eye sees and the camera records, a photograph quotes from an appearance but may not tell us the truth; this he calls a half-language of appearance as there is expectation of further meaning to follow – I like this description.
- Barthes, states that the essence of photography is the belief that something has existed, and therefore it is a copy of a past reality.
Levi Strauss cites indexicality as one of the main bases for the claim of photography to be true. The term comes from Charles Sanders Peirce’s semiotic theory of the 3 ways a sign may stand for it’s object: as an existential connection (indexical), a likeness (inconic) or a habit/law (symbolic). However Levi Strauss points out that others suggest that the photograph cannot speak for itself as it has no language, and therefore relies on others to say things about it.
Levi Strauss suggests that to understand why we believe photographic images in the way that we do we should look to the past, before “technical” images were invented and old “image-beliefs” were transferred onto them. A key to this is what some call a sense of magic or a science of the imaginary and the connection between this thought of magic and technology.
Ultimately Levi Strauss explains that because he believes in photographs doesn’t mean that he is gullible or uncritical about them; he describes himself as realist like Barthes, who takes the photograph not as copy of reality but as a copy of a past reality. He points out that the consumption of images, due to technology, has changed. More images today are viewed by streaming flow than as singular images, so are seldom dwelled on or revisited. He also points to the increasing manipulation of technical images and the control there is over communication apparatuses that can give concentrated control over belief. Levi Strauss believes that reality is increasing “under siege” in technological, political and social terms. Also that our belief in technology has reduced our inclination to challenge what is presented.
Belief he says, is important for “the social” without which we lose the ability to act socially. We need images of the world to believe in it.
Reflections:
I think he is correct to look at the implications of technological change, (smart phones and the internet amongst them), on photographs and belief. Photographs have always been used to manipulate the truth and what we see, it is just the methods that keep changing. It does create a constant challenge to our belief in the image, but we need images and have to find a way to believe in them. I guess this will constantly shift over time, especially as images now shift from a singular trace to a flow.
I also agree with one of the final statements in the book, that it is vital to know the origins of an image, who made it and for what purpose. This has to be my starting point when looking for truth in an image.
I also enjoyed his collection of quotes at the end of the book on belief, such as: “The true mystery of the world is the visible” Oscar Wilde.
I previously attended online: Talk: David Levi Strauss with Duncan Wooldridge (online) The Photographer’s gallery. 7.12.20 see my post: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/photographer-talks/david-levi-strauss-7-12-20/
This reading is included in my round up of my reading for assignment 5: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/2021/04/09/research-assignment-five/ which takes me forwards to my proposal for my assignment 5 “Layers of Truth”: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/2021/04/09/assignment-5-draft-proposal/
References:
Barthes, R (1981) Camera Lucida:Reflections on Photography. Translated by Richard Howard. New York:Hill and Wang/Farrar, Struass and Giroux, 1981.
Benjamin, W (1999) Convolute Y [Photography]. In The Arcades Project pp671-692. Ranslated by Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin. Cambridg, MA:Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 1999.
Berger, J (2013) Understanding a photograph. Edited and with an introduction by Geoff Dyer. New York: Aperture, 2013.
Strauss, D. L. (2020) Photography and Belief. David Zwirner Books.
Photography 2: Documentary 