Post-post-photography

Abstract

Friedrich Tietjen's study entitled "Post-post-photography" analyses the functioning of contemporary photography from the pragmatic side of photographic uses. He seeks to answer the question whether the theoretical paradigm of post-photography, which has changed as a result of the digital revolution and the ways of image-making associated with this turnaround, is still relevant in the light of contemporary uses. The question is explored from three different angles: through the history of photography, its definition and from a pragmatical approach. Tietjen points out that what has long been considered a distinctive feature of photography that made the medium distinct from all other means of artistic expression, its indexical nature and the authenticating and evidential function that can be attributed to it, have been called into question from the very beginning of photography. The history of the theory of photography, as Tietjen interprets it, reflects the dream of humanity that believes in the possibility of creating a truthfully objective representation.