Abstrakt
This paper offers a sketch of a philosophical theory of photographing, based on an application of Nishida Kitarō's middle and later philosophy. More specifically, Nishida's idea of a logic of place (場所的論理) will play a central role in developing a topological theory of the practice of photography.The article will focus on certain relevant "places" in which photography emerges: the camera, the photographer, and the situation in and out of which photographs are created.
Following Nishida's logic, the aforementioned places will be thought of both as independent and as correlated with one another. Furthermore, the difference between the technological mode of seeing of the apparatus and the bodily mode of seeing of the photographer will be discussed in greater detail, to which end Nishida's idea of reflection (映し), as well as his discussion of tools (道具) will be of import.
In order to further cast light on our understanding of the photographic practice, concepts from Nishida's later thought, including the historical world (歴史的世界), from the made to the making (作られたものから作るものへ), as well as acting intuition (行為的直観) will be put to critical discussion. While it can be said that photographs are always reproductions of something that (historically) already exists, they at the same time represent a creation of something entirely new.
Photographing involves both acting and seeing. The challenge posed to photographers is thus to identify something photographically relevant (seeing ) and to respond to it (acting ).
At the same time, a photographer's inter-dependence with his or her environment allows for interpreting the photographic seeing as being triggered by actions (or events) within the given situation, which do not entirely depend on the photographer. Insofar as the photographic practice is also characterized by a specific temporality, a brief discussion of such a temporality shall, at the end of this paper, complement the topological theory.
For this purpose, Nishida's theory of time, especially his concepts of the eternal now (永遠の今) and the discontinuous continuity (非連続の連続) will be applied.