THE PRODUCTION OF MEANING THROUGH LANGUAGE OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Text topic: Aesthetics Today

Text author: Милан Радовановић

By developing modern theoretical approaches, starting from linguistics, through semiotics to the theory of visual culture, photography is no longer considered as an objective and realistic visual representation of what was in front of the camera lenses at the moment of taking a picture, because it is also necessary to take into account protocols and codes that generate our visual experience. Although the photograph looks convincing, clearly and easily understandable because of its “apparent” visual similarity to what it shows, the way we view the photograph is not based solely on our natural perceptual ability. Scopic regimes are directly dependent on existing social practices, especially the language we use. If by language we mean any communication system that uses signs organized in a certain way, then visual representations can be considered as a practice of producing meanings determined by the visual language that will be the subject of our research. In the photograph we see and recognize what is depicted not only because photograph resembles it, but also because it belongs to the type of representation that we have learned to ‘read’ in a certain way. The relationship between the photograph and the object is not direct and natural, but conventional. Similarity is not based solely on the matching of their visual properties, but also on the practices that are involved in the production of meaning.