Photography and Belief

by David Levi Strauss

In this exploration of contemporary photography, David Levi Strauss questions the concept that “seeing is believing”

Identifying a recent shift in the dominance of photography, David Levi Strauss looks at the power of the medium in the age of Photoshop, smart phones, and the internet, asking important questions about how we look and what we trust.

In the first ekphrasis title on photography, Strauss challenges the aura of believability and highlights the potential dangers around this status. He examines how images produced on cameras gradually gained an inordinate power to influence public opinion, prompt action, comfort and assuage, and direct or even create desire. How and why do we believe technical images the way we do?

Offering a poignant argument in the era of “fake news,” Strauss draws attention to new changes in the technology of seeing. Some uses of "technical images" are causing the connection between images and belief (between seeing and believing) to fray and pull apart. How is this shifting our relationship to images? Will this crisis in what we can believe come to threaten our very purchase on the real? This book is an inquiry into the history and future of our belief in images.

Genres: Photography, Art, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Essays, Academic

96 pages, Paperback

Published October 27, 2020

Reviews

[Ugnė · Rating 4 out of 5]

Įdomios mintys apie (pasi)tikėjimą tuo, ką matome, kai žiūrime į šiuolaikinių medijų sukurtą vaizdą. Fotografija iš pradžių nelaikyta menu, nes manyta, kad ji tiesiogiai atvaizduoja tikrovę, tačiau ilgainiui pradėjo matytis, kad toji tikrovė labai priklauso nuo to, kas ją pamato ir ką nori parodyti, tačiau mes, matydami vaizdą, kurį tikime esant tikru, šiuos klausimus sau kelti pamirštame. O be reikalo.

[dv · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un pamphlet leggero, costruito sul filo del pensiero di Benjamin, Berger, Barthes, Flusser e altri, che analizza la nostra relazione con il credere e il vedere, facendo perno sulla natura insieme indicale (almeno secondo alcuni) e ambigua della fotografia. Approdo della riflessione di Levi Strauss: è sul terreno della magia che forse possiamo soprattutto capire la fotografia.

[Curtis Anthony Bozif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great little book to think about photography with, especially in an era of DALL-E2 and DeepFakes, but definitely too short.

[em!]

really interesting stuff, tracing the change from religious belief to belief in the technological image itself. also the move from written to more visual forms of expression, as well as the trace of the singular image (the still photograph) vs the flow of today’s information technologies (i am thinking everything from television to social media)—a constant connectedness that is leading, ironically, to a world of meaninglessness and disconnection.

i wish more time had been spent exploring this in the last chapter in particular; here levi strauss touched the most on his own thoughts (rather than explaining other people’s) but didn’t really elaborate on them.

fascinating & somewhat depressing how people were predicting the impacts of artificial intelligence on human freedom all the way back in the 80s like. oh brother.

will have to read vilém flusser’s “für eine philosophie der fotografie,” “ins universum der technischen bilder,” and “die schrift. hat schreiben zukunft?” sometime.

[Pietro Marconi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tanti spunti !!

[Lea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confesso di non aver capito questo saggio. Non mi pare di aver colto la risposta dell'autore alla domanda posta dal titolo. E nemmeno la possibile soluzione a un presente (e a un futuro) dominato dalle immagini, sia vere che false. Soprattutto quelle false, che condizionano sempre di più il comportamento umano proprio in virtù del fatto che vengono credute vere.
Conclude il saggio una piccola antologia di citazioni. Ne estraggo una:

"Non dimentichiamo che la struttura dell'atomo è invisibile ma risaputa. So molte cose che non ho visto. E voi anche. Non si può provare l'esistenza di ciò che è più vero, è sufficiente credere. Credere piangendo."
Clarice Lispector, "L'ora della stella", 1977

[Sharla · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay. First and last chapters were great, as well as the quotation anthology at the end. Wish more time had been spent in general on interrogating the relationship between sight and belief before moving into the postmodern critics, but then, there's only so much that can be done with the limited page count, which seems intentional. That said, this has definitely increased my interest in philosophy generally, especially with regards to the relationship between technology, science, and belief; and has given me a lot to chew on, and new sources to seek out.

[Evelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a philosophical discussion on whether images presented in photographs as with paintings should be given credibility as accurate representations and depictions of facts and places, or should be viewed as manipulations of them. It is to some extent precedent of the concept of deep fakes although alluding to such concepts and the problems they create in the essay.

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection of concepts and a cohesive breakdown of the philosophies behind photography roughly in chronological order. A bit more theoretical than I was expecting, but interesting. A comforting conclusion that although someday cameras as we know them will be outdated or obsolete, the inherently human fascination with stopping moments and preserving them.

[Sarah Gentry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very intellectually dense—it made me think a lot about the way we utilize photographs to communicate what we see, how they are less of an art form and more of a communicator of the literal than the metaphorical (which would be art). And the increasing societal need for active creation, not passive AI-centric representation.

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

my brain hurts but what a lovely read for me to pick through over the last year - I’m not used to this kind of writing and will definitely need to read again to grasp it further. I felt my heart and my brain growing like the grinch’s

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

A marvellous little book that cogently summarizes some of the major threads of thought surrounding the nature of the photograph as magic.

[Joshua Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A concise read, with introductions to subjects I hadn’t considered to be photographically adjective - further reading necessary.

[Elie · Rating 3 out of 5]

concise but essentially a regurgitation of the already quoted ??

[a____ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seeing is believing and love because believing grows from the same root as loving.

[Márcia Figueira · Rating 3 out of 5]

if you can't believe, you can't act

[Connie Staub · Rating 3 out of 5]

This hurt my head in a way I didn’t really like, but it was interesting

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gets to the point, which I can’t say about a lot of modern books trying to introduce complex topics. A good progression and I always appreciate an author who is transparent about their biases.

Negatives: said biases are, like a lot of critical writing very based on a specific gendered, western experience. And one of the cited books was basically the type of Discovery Channel religious mystery conspiracy stuff, but it ended up more color than fact in my reading. Always check the bibliography if something feels odd!