Ideation and Photography: A critique of François Laruelle’s concept of abstraction
Abstract
In Concept of Non-Photography (2011) and Photo-Fiction (2012), François Laruelle, outlines a theory of photographic abstraction that breaks completely with the debate on realism in photographic theory. Refusing to see photographic representation as involving any concession to resemblance (photographs have more in common with other photographs than with the objects they depict, he declares), he inflates the notion of the photograph as a symbolic entity into a transcendental theoretical domain. This is the result of his radical (non-philosophical) separation of appearances from truth (nothing stands ‘behind’ photographs he asserts). If this inflates photographs-as-abstractions as a form of rich ‘unlimited theoretical’ production, it also deflates them as social discursive entities, that ‘give and ask for reasons’. The result is a post-dialectical flattening of photographic appearances, in which images run in one-dimensional ‘parallel’ with the world. Laruelle’s attempt to release photography from mere appearances, produces a socially deracinated account of abstraction.Citation
Roberts, J. (2016). Ideation and Photography: A critique of François Laruelle’s concept of abstraction. Photographies, 9 (2), pp 217-228Publisher
Taylor & FrancisJournal
PhotographiesAdditional Links
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17540763.2016.1188138Type
Journal articleLanguage
enISSN
1754-0763ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1080/17540763.2016.1188138
Scopus Count
Collections
The following licence applies to the copyright and re-use of this item:
- Creative Commons
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/