ABSTRACT
The study of photography is a fast-changing and multifarious enquiry with philosophical significance in aesthetics, art, epistemology, ethics, semiotics and image theory. The object of study is not simply “the photograph,” but a group of evolving practices: primarily the production, storage, distribution and viewing of photographic images. Photography is a family of technologies able to fulfill functions such as detection, reproduction, recording, depiction and “manifestation” (Maynard 1997, 2010) and these functions are realized in diverse processes, for example: camera-less photograms; negative-positive printing using paper, glass or film; video stills; and digital data recording. These are studied alongside processes that are not strictly photography but employ associated techniques, such as image-capture through virtual “ray-tracing.” As a medium, or perhaps as a collection of media, photography is acutely
responsive to technological developments in camera design and image distribution – innovations often driven by popular, commercial and scientific photography. In these contexts older methods of photographic production and viewing have been largely superseded by digital cameras and electronic display screens. In the artworld, by comparison, production methods still reflect the full history of photography, with artists choosing to work with daguerreotype, cyanotype and salt-printing as readily as using “emulator” technology designed to simulate the effects of these techniques in digital post-processing.
