Introduction

". . . but if by some mishap the arms race should set off the nuclear fireworks, which it had been quite capable of doing for some time, it would represent nothing more than a meaningless manifestation of the fact that the earth had once been inhabited, a fireworks without anyone to observe it, unless it were some kind of humanity or similar life-form somewhere near Sirius or elsewhere, without any chance of communicating to the one so badly desired to be observed (since he would no longer exist) that, in fact, he had been observed, and even the religious and political fundamentalism that was breaking out or persisting wherever one looked was an indication that many, indeed most, people could not stand themselves if they were not observed by someone" (21).

Friedrich Durrenmatt, The Assignment

"To be is to be perceived."

Bishop George Berkeley

Friedrich Durrenmatt's The Assignment (1988) describes a world in which the camera replaces "history" as the determining factor in the shaping of events. In this version of contemporary life, it no longer matters whether anything actually "happens," and instead, the perception of whether something has occurred takes precedence. Durrenmatt's work provides a fictional counterpoint to a development discussed by many media and cultural theorists (Baudrillard in particular), namely, the blurring of the line separating reality from images (photographic, digital, and otherwise) and other forms of representation.

The birth of photography in the mid-nineteenth century was hailed as a triumph of human ingenuity, making it possible to document reality with mechanical precision. Only gradually did people begin to recognize that with the arrival of technological capability comes the necessity of making choices, selecting what to see and from what point of view. The analysis which follows represents a broad survey of the photographic image from its inception (1839) to the present, attempting to consider some of the ways in which images have been used to dominate and influence our lives.

NEXT