Historiography and Photography

What brings photography closer to historiography than other products of visual culture is the indexical link between the photograph and reality; a connection that, since the early decades of photography, has been considered its most important advantage over other human-made visual products such as painting and engraving. Accordingly, a photograph, as an authentic and mechanical reproduction of social and historical existence, could serve as a direct and reliable source for accessing many realities, including past realities that were beyond the reach and capabilities of written discourse and its derivatives. This issue has now become a classic question in the theory of photography; meaning that despite the age, antiquity, and abundance of texts written about photography, it remains the main subject of theoretical speculation in this field. The essays collected and translated in this volume strive to shed light on this issue.