Photography and Non-Logical Form

The study considers photography as a phenomenon in which not only the visual but also the semantic component is important.[https://www.photographer.ru/events/review/8146.htm “Photography and Non-Logical Form” by Ekaterina Vasilyeva - the Logic of Meaning] // Review of the site photographer.ru, 2020. The basis of the concept is the representation of photography as an irrational system that uses a non-logical form as a main mechanism.Stepanov M.A. (2019) [https://old.culturalresearch.ru/en/archives-eng/163--3-36-2019- Image outside of Logos] // International Journal of Cultural Research. No. 3. pp. 231–235. The concept of the book synthesizes the theory of photography and the theory of thinking, considering the rational and non-logical as a single mechanism.Pozdnyakova K.G. (2023) [https://vestnik.chgik.ru/en/culture-and-arts-herald-2023-no-1-73/ Theory of photography in 36 chapters] // Bulletin of culture and arts. 2023. No. 1 (73). pp. 96-101. In photography, the non-logical form can be considered as part of the civilizational consciousness.Vasileva E. (2019) [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373799841_Vasileva_E_2019_Photography_and_Non-Logical_Form_M_New_Literary_Review_312_p Photography and Non-Logical Form]. M.: New Literary Review. The photographic system reveals that forms of thought traditionally defined as archaic are an integral component of modern consciousness.Lévy-Bruhl L. La mentalité primitive. Paris: Félix Alcan, 1922.Lévi-Strauss C. Le Totémisme aujourd’hui. Paris: PUF, 1962.Steblin-Kamensky M. Myth. Leningrad: Nauka, 1976.

The modern analytical system considers logical thinking to be its basis: rational knowledge is built on its principles. The concept of a non-logical system connects the photography with the space of the irrational.Vasileva E. (2019) [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373799841_Vasileva_E_2019_Photography_and_Non-Logical_Form_M_New_Literary_Review_312_p Photography and Non-Logical Form]. M.: New Literary Review.

Photography, like many other civilizational forms, retains elements of prelogical consciousness. This concept was partly presented in the works of Roland Barthes,Barthes R. Camera Lucida. New York: Hill & Wang, 1980. Jean Baudrillard,Baudrillard J. La Photographie ou l’Écriture de la Lumiere: Litteralite de l’Image // L’Echange Im-possible. Paris: Galilée, 1999. P. 175–184. Rosalind KraussKrauss R. Le Photographique : Pour une théorie des écarts. Paris: Macula, 1990. and subsequently formulated in the book "Photography and Non-logical Form". The concept is based on the study of the principles of non-logical consciousness, initiated by Ernst Cassirer,Cassirer E. Philosophie der symbolischen Formen, Bd 1—3, Вerlin: Bruno Cassirer, 1923—1929. Lucien Lévy-BruhlLévy-Bruhl L. La mentalité primitive. Paris: Félix Alcan, 1922. and Claude Lévi-Strauss.Lévi-Strauss C. Le Totémisme aujourd’hui. Paris: PUF, 1962. Ekaterina Vasilyeva's research deals with the ability of photography to support a non-logical system. Photography violates the principle of language and meaning, changes the usual continuity of time, otherwise defines the system and structure of space.

The book draws attention to the fact that photography noticeably violates the principle of language. Photography cannot reproduce the linguistic principle of the exchange between the signifier and the signified and draws attention to itself as a phenomenon that specifically forms the structure of meaning.Vasileva E. (2019) [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373799841_Vasileva_E_2019_Photography_and_Non-Logical_Form_M_New_Literary_Review_312_p Photography and Non-Logical Form]. M.: New Literary Review. This observation was also expressed by other researchers in their studies.Barthes R. Camera Lucida. New York: Hill & Wang, 1980.Petrovskaya E. Theory of image. M.: RSUH, 2010. Ekaterina Vasilyeva draws attention to the fact that photography cannot act as a sign and cannot use the system of meaning formation inherent in language.Saussure, Ferdinand de. (1916) Cours de linguistique générale, eds. Charles Bally & Albert Sechehaye, with the assistance of Albert Riedlinger. Lausanne – Paris: Payot.Peirce, C.S. (c.1894 MS), "What Is a Sign?". Published in part in CP 2.281, 285, and 297-302, and in full in EP 2:4-10. Peirce Edition Project. Photography demonstrates the principle of meaning formation, independent of the sign. The book emphasizes that the phenomenon of photographic meaning is characterized by semantic uncertainty.Vasilieva, E. V. (2016). [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321682509_Vasilieva_E_V_2016_The_idea_of_sign_and_the_principle_of_exchange_in_the_field_of_photography_and_in_the_system_of_language_Vestnik_of_Saint_Petersburg_University_Arts_61_4-34 The idea of sign and the principle of exchange in the field of photography and in the system of language]. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Arts, 6(1), 4-34. The photograph demonstrates the possibility of a principle unrelated to the monetary or linguistic system. Along with other researchers, the author comes to the conclusion that photography does not support the language system.Baudrillard J. La Photographie ou l’Écriture de la Lumiere: Litteralite de l’Image // L’Echange Im-possible. Paris: Galilée, 1999. P. 175–184.

{{see also|Category (philosophy)}}

Photography breaks the standard taxonomic model and overcomes the system of categorical thinking.Vasileva E. (2019) [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373799841_Vasileva_E_2019_Photography_and_Non-Logical_Form_M_New_Literary_Review_312_p Photography and Non-Logical Form]. M.: New Literary Review. Categories, generalizations and concepts in photography are replaced by literal images. In a photograph, a general representation of the subject is impossible. The frame allows a specific image of a given subject. In photography, the principle of system and structure is replaced by the idea of a literal list. This brings photography closer to both archaic thinking and modern principles of object consciousness.Lévy-Bruhl L. La mentalité primitive. Paris: Félix Alcan, 1922.

{{see also|Taxonomy}}

Photography violates the principles of classification adopted in the civilizational system and subject to categorical or hierarchical thinking.Vasileva E. (2019) [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373799841_Vasileva_E_2019_Photography_and_Non-Logical_Form_M_New_Literary_Review_312_p Photography and Non-Logical Form]. M.: New Literary Review. The photographic representation does not support the root taxon system and the underlying classified entities. Civilizational thinking is a hierarchy of subordinate concepts.Lévi-Strauss C. Le Totémisme aujourd’hui. Paris: PUF, 1962.Lévy-Bruhl L. La mentalité primitive. Paris: Félix Alcan, 1922.Durkheim E. Les Formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse : le système totémique en Australie, Paris: Félix Alcan,1912. Photography operates on principles that are not linked by circumstances of subordination.Barthes R. Camera Lucida. New York: Hill & Wang, 1980. Photography forms a fundamentally different model: it does not use general or generalizing concepts, but is a literal list of specific, often secondary, objects.Baudrillard J. La Photographie ou l’Écriture de la Lumiere: Litteralite de l’Image // L’Echange Im-possible. Paris: Galilée, 1999. P. 175–184. This literal listing (or representation) of specific objects cannot be used as an element of subordinate categories. Researchers pay attention to the fact that the principle of generalization, on which the taxonomic system is built, is not possible in photography.Barthes R. Camera Lucida. New York: Hill & Wang, 1980. Photography is addressed to specific subjects, and not to their generalization and systematization. “Classification is ... the separation of the main and the secondary. The taxonomic model presupposes an order of precedence, a hierarchy of the important and the insignificant, the main and the peripheral.”Vasileva E. (2019) [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373799841_Vasileva_E_2019_Photography_and_Non-Logical_Form_M_New_Literary_Review_312_p Photography and Non-Logical Form]. M.: New Literary Review, p. 19. Researchers point out that photography, in fact, does not allow for the possibility of such a division.

{{see also|Philosophy of space and time}}

Photography is often considered one of those phenomena that reveals a specific position in the system of time.Barthes R. Camera Lucida. New York: Hill & Wang, 1980. Photography does not refute the pattern of linear time, but it does not support it either.Vasilieva, E. V. (2018). [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/367966359_Vasilieva_E_V_2018_Photography_and_phenomena_of_time_Vestnik_of_Saint_Petersburg_University_Arts_41_64-79 Photography and phenomena of time]. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Arts, 4(1), 64-79.Petrovskaya E. Theory of image. M.: RSUH, 2010. Photography is characterized by inconsistency with the system of time, tied to the continuity of past, present and future. “The photograph sees the time flow as a set of isolated “nows” that violate the idea of linearity and build a chaotic environment,” notes photography researcher Ekaterina Vasilieva.Vasileva E. (2019) [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373799841_Vasileva_E_2019_Photography_and_Non-Logical_Form_M_New_Literary_Review_312_p Photography and Non-Logical Form]. M.: New Literary Review, p. 65. Photography radically mixes the emphasis between past, present and future: frames as events can be arranged in any sequence.Barthes R. Camera Lucida. New York: Hill & Wang, 1980. At the same time, photography always belongs to the present and, at the same time, is always connected with the past. .Vasileva E. (2019) [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373799841_Vasileva_E_2019_Photography_and_Non-Logical_Form_M_New_Literary_Review_312_p Photography and Non-Logical Form]. M.: New Literary Review, p. 65.

The study is based on the assumption that photography uses a specific model of space.Krauss R. (1982) [https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/lklichfall13t/files/2013/09/Krauss.pdf Photography's Discursive Spaces: Landscape/View]. Art Journal, Vol. 42, No. 4, The Crisis in the Discipline. pp. 311-319 Its peculiarity lies not only in the ability to convert a three-dimensional volume into a two-dimensional image, but also in the ability to represent space as a specific structure.Nesbit M. Atget’s Seven Albums. New Haven; London: Yale Publications in the History of Art, 1993. Photography does not reproduce space as a single organism, but considers it as a set of fragments. Photography presents the elements of space as qualitatively different, destroying the idea of the world as a single system. Vasileva E. (2019) [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373799841_Vasileva_E_2019_Photography_and_Non-Logical_Form_M_New_Literary_Review_312_p Photography and Non-Logical Form]. M.: New Literary Review. This way of representing space can be considered typical for archaic systems and mythological consciousness.Cassirer E. Philosophie der symbolischen Formen, Bd 1—3, Вerlin: Bruno Cassirer, 1923—1929.Steblin-Kamensky M. Myth. Leningrad: Nauka, 1976. Propp V. Historical roots of the Magic Tale. Leningrad: Leningrad State University Publishing House, 1946. “Photography captures the surrounding space as a set of fragments.” Vasileva E. (2019) [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373799841_Vasileva_E_2019_Photography_and_Non-Logical_Form_M_New_Literary_Review_312_p Photography and Non-Logical Form]. M.: New Literary Review, p. 27. The author of the book notes that pictorial space refers to the idea of the whole. Other authors have made similar observations.Krauss R. (1982) [https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/lklichfall13t/files/2013/09/Krauss.pdf Photography's Discursive Spaces: Landscape/View]. Art Journal, Vol. 42, No. 4, The Crisis in the Discipline. pp. 311-319Baudrillard J. La Photographie ou l’Écriture de la Lumiere: Litteralite de l’Image // L’Echange Impossible. Paris: Galilée, 1999. P. 175–184. “Photography opens up space as a form of optical illusion, moving ever further away from the idea associated with the wall of the picture.” Vasileva E. (2019) [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373799841_Vasileva_E_2019_Photography_and_Non-Logical_Form_M_New_Literary_Review_312_p Photography and Non-Logical Form]. M.: New Literary Review, p. 27. The photographic system faces the same system as the mythological space: its parts are fragmentary and are not connected with each other either meaningfully or logically. Steblin-Kamensky M. Myth. Leningrad: Nauka, 1976. Photography divides physical space into fragments and constructs a new spatial environment on their basis.

The effect of “metaphysical emptiness” has acquired particular significance in photography.Vasilyeva E. Early urban photography: to the problem of iconography of space // International Journal of Cultural Research. 2019. No. 4 (37). pp. 65-86. An example of a metaphysical representation of space is the photographs of Eugène Atget.Nesbit M. Atget’s Seven Albums. New Haven; London: Yale Publications in the History of Art, 1993.

{{see also|Dasein}}

The photograph presents a specific paradox in terms of the circumstance of presence. Petrovskaya E. Theory of image. M.: RSUH, 2010. The author of the book draws attention to the fact that when talking about photography, we do not always understand what means “to be”, and what “not to be” means. In particular, Martin Heidegger spoke about the possibility of defining being by time, and time by being.Heidegger M. (1962). Being and Time. Translated by John Macquarrie & Edward Robinson. London: SCM Press. When the components of this connection are broken, the idea of presence and existence in photography appears as a paradox. Photography, which initially violates the picture of time, demonstrates a paradoxical situation in terms of the picture of presence.Petrovskaya E. Theory of image. M.: RSUH, 2010. If the picture of time is broken in a photograph, it is difficult to determine what “to be” means in relation to the frame. Vasileva E. (2019) [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373799841_Vasileva_E_2019_Photography_and_Non-Logical_Form_M_New_Literary_Review_312_p Photography and Non-Logical Form]. M.: New Literary Review. The study defines the specifics of photography as a violation of the unity of being and time.Vasileva E. (2019) [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373799841_Vasileva_E_2019_Photography_and_Non-Logical_Form_M_New_Literary_Review_312_p Photography and Non-Logical Form]. M.: New Literary Review.

Critics evaluate the book as an important precedent in the field of photography theory.Stepanov M.A. (2019) [https://old.culturalresearch.ru/en/archives-eng/163--3-36-2019- Image outside of Logos] // International Journal of Cultural Research. No. 3. pp. 231–235.Pozdnyakova K.G. (2023) [https://vestnik.chgik.ru/en/culture-and-arts-herald-2023-no-1-73/ Theory of photography in 36 chapters] // Bulletin of culture and arts. 2023. No. 1 (73). pp. 96-101.[https://www.photographer.ru/events/review/8146.htm “Photography and Non-Logical Form” by Ekaterina Vasilyeva - the Logic of Meaning] // Review of the site photographer.ru, 2020. They characterize the book as a study in an attempt to consider photography as part of an irrational system in today's culture.[http://www.photounion.ru/Show_News.php?nnum=2087 Review of the book by Ekaterina Vasilyeva “Photography and Non-Logical Form”] // Union of Photographers of Russia. 2019. The researchers believe that the book is "one of the few attempts in recent years to move away from traditional research patterns that have developed in the field of photography."[https://www.photographer.ru/events/review/8146.htm “Photography and Non-Logical Form” by Ekaterina Vasilyeva - the Logic of Meaning] // Review of the site photographer.ru, 2020. Critics believe that the study forms its own analytical program and forms a new analytical vector in the study of photography.Stepanov M.A. (2019) [https://old.culturalresearch.ru/en/archives-eng/163--3-36-2019- Image outside of Logos] // International Journal of Cultural Research. No. 3. pp. 231–235.

Critics note the importance of the concept for the study of modern culture in general. Pozdnyakova K.G. (2023) [https://vestnik.chgik.ru/en/culture-and-arts-herald-2023-no-1-73/ Theory of photography in 36 chapters] // Bulletin of culture and arts. 2023. No. 1 (73). pp. 96-101[https://www.photographer.ru/events/review/8146.htm “Photography and Non-Logical Form” by Ekaterina Vasilyeva - the Logic of Meaning] // Review of the site photographer.ru, 2020. “Vasilyeva’s research shows the presence in a number of media phenomena of modern culture of elements that have their own activity and logic, beyond the control of human rationality.”Stepanov M.A. (2019) [https://old.culturalresearch.ru/en/archives-eng/163--3-36-2019- Image outside of Logos] // International Journal of Cultural Research. No. 3. pp. 231–235.

The book “Photography and Non-Logical Form” is presented in the collections of the following libraries:

• Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., US
• Warburg Library, London, UK
• Library of the Cini Foundation, Venice, Italy
• National Library of Finland, Helsinki, Finland
• Russian State Library, Moscow, Russia
• The National Library of Russia, Saint Petersburg, Russia
• Library of the Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia
• Library of Saint Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg, Russia

• Roland Barthes
• Susan Sontag
• Ekaterina Vasileva (art historian)
• On Photography
• Camera Lucida (book)

{{Reflist|20em}}

• Vasileva E. (2019) [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373799841_Vasileva_E_2019_Photography_and_Non-Logical_Form_M_New_Literary_Review_312_p Photography and Non-Logical Form]. M.: New Literary Review, 312 p.

• Stepanov M.A. (2019) [https://old.culturalresearch.ru/en/archives-eng/163--3-36-2019- Image outside of Logos] // International Journal of Cultural Research. No. 3. pp. 231–235.
• Pozdnyakova K.G. (2023) [https://vestnik.chgik.ru/en/culture-and-arts-herald-2023-no-1-73/ Theory of photography in 36 chapters] // Bulletin of culture and arts. 2023. No. 1 (73). pp. 96-101.
• [https://www.photographer.ru/events/review/8146.htm “Photography and Non-Logical Form” by Ekaterina Vasilyeva - the Logic of Meaning] // Review of the site photographer.ru, 2020.
• [http://www.photounion.ru/Show_News.php?nnum=2087 Review of the book by Ekaterina Vasilyeva “Photography and Non-Logical Form”] // Union of Photographers of Russia. 2019.
• [https://www.photographer.ru/events/news/7780.htm The publishing house “NLO” published Ekaterina Vasilyeva’s book “Photography and Non-Logical Form”] // Review of the site photographer.ru, 2019.

• [https://books.google.com/books?id=PreODwAAQBAJ The book “Photography and Non-Logical Form”] on Google books
• [https://www.photographer.ru/events/review/8146.htm “Photography and Non-Logical form” by Ekaterina Vasilyeva]. Review of the site photographer.ru, 2020.

Category:2019 books

Category:Essay collections

Category:Books about photography