2025-11

kiji

Ariella Azoulay’s “The Civil Contract of Photography”: The Image as an Ethical Summons

Ariella Aïsha Azoulay's The Civil Contract of Photography reframes photography as a political-ethical relationship. This analysis breaks down its 4 core concepts: 1) The "photographic event" (photographer, subject, spectator); 2) The "civil contract" that demands a response from the viewer; 3) The "civil gaze" as a counter-sovereign act that crosses borders; 4) The shift from aesthetic judgment to "rebuttable political judgment." It turns viewing into a call for civic responsibility.
2025.11.05
kiji
kiji

Vilém Flusser’s “Towards a Philosophy of Photography”: An Analysis of Apparatus and Program

Vilém Flusser's Towards a Philosophy of Photography is a foundational media philosophy. This analysis breaks down its 4 core concepts: 1) The "technical image" as a projection of concepts, not a reflection of reality; 2) The camera as an "apparatus" and the photographer as a "functionary" playing within its "program"; 3) Creativity as "playing against" the program to generate new information; 4) The politics of the post-alphabetical world, where power lies in the code and distribution.
2025.11.05
kiji
kiji

W. J. T. Mitchell’s “Picture Theory”: A Toolkit for Image-Text Criticism

W. J. T. Mitchell's Picture Theory (1994) is a foundational text for visual culture studies. This analysis breaks down its 4 core concepts: 1) The "Pictorial Turn," which positions the image as a central problem, not an illustration; 2) The "image/text" trio (image/text, image-text, imagetext) for analyzing relations; 3) The distinction between the material "picture" and the virtual "image"; 4) The "metapicture" as a site of self-referential theory.
2025.11.05
kiji
kiji

Geoffrey Batchen’s “Burning with Desire”: The Conception of Photography

Geoffrey Batchen's Burning with Desire is a conceptual archaeology of photography. This analysis breaks down its 4 core concepts: 1) Photography existed as a social "desire" long before its 1839 naming; 2) Deconstructing the single-inventor myth (Daguerre, Talbot) by emphasizing multi-point synchronicity; 3) Merging conceptual history with a material turn, focusing on vernacular objects; 4) Challenging the "index" theory (Krauss) with a composite model of concept, institution, and desire.
2025.11.05
kiji
kiji

The Archaeology of Vision: Jonathan Crary’s “Techniques of the Observer”

Jonathan Crary's Techniques of the Observer is an archaeology of modern vision. This analysis breaks down its 4 core concepts: 1) The shift from the "camera obscura" model to an "embodied," subjective vision (e.g., afterimages); 2) How 19th-c. devices (stereoscope, zoetrope) trained the viewer's "attention" and "distraction"; 3) The disciplining of attention as a form of manageable labor; 4) How the modern gaze internalized the logic of commodity circulation. A foundational text for visual culture and the "attention economy."
2025.11.05
kiji
kiji

Rosalind Krauss’s “The Originality of the Avant-Garde”: A Machine for Deconstructing Modernist Myths

Rosalind Krauss's The Originality of the Avant-Garde is a critical machine for deconstructing modernist myths. This analysis breaks down its 4 core concepts: 1) How "originality" is a discursive and institutional effect; 2) The "index" (trace) theory, using Peirce to redefine photography and conceptual art; 3) The "Expanded Field" model for remapping sculpture; 4) The "Grid" as a self-mythology of modernism. A key text for understanding art, photography, and institutional critique.
2025.11.05
kiji
kiji

John Szarkowski’s “The Photographer’s Eye”: Establishing a Formal Language for Seeing

John Szarkowski's 1966 The Photographer's Eye established a formal language for photography as art. This article analyzes its five core concepts: The Thing Itself, The Detail, The Frame, Time, and Vantage Point. This MoMA-derived toolkit teaches viewers how to identify selection, boundaries, and rhythm in an image, serving as a foundational text for formal analysis that complements the work of Berger, Sontag, and Barthes.
2025.11.05
kiji
kiji

John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing”: An Exercise in Demystifying Visual Power

John Berger's Ways of Seeing is a classic exercise in demystifying visual culture. This article analyzes its four core concepts: 1) How reproduction and context change an image's meaning; 2) The tradition of oil painting as an "aesthetic of ownership" and the "Nude" as a body organized by the male gaze; 3) How advertising functions as modern oil painting by manufacturing "envy"; 4) The demystification of art to reclaim viewer agency. It also explores the book's long-term impact on visual culture and feminist criticism.
2025.11.05
kiji
kiji

The Aura’s Waning and the Political Turn: Rereading Walter Benjamin’s “Work of Art” Essay

Walter Benjamin's "Work of Art" essay is a crucial media diagnosis. This article analyzes its 4 core concepts: 1) How technical reproduction causes the "aura" to wither, shifting art from sacred to secular; 2) Art's function shifts from "ritual value" to "exhibition value"; 3) The conflict between the "aestheticization of politics" (Fascism) and the "politicization of art"; 4) How film trains a new perception through "shock" and "distraction." It also discusses its value as a critical tool and its role as a "triangular fulcrum" with Sontag and Barthes.
2025.11.05
kiji
kiji

Roland Barthes’s “Camera Lucida”: A Meditation on Time and the Punctum

Roland Barthes's Camera Lucida is a meditation on photography written in mourning. This article analyzes its four core concepts: 1) The dual structure of viewing, "Studium" (cultural interest) vs. "Punctum" (the personal, piercing detail); 2) The photograph's essence as "that-has-been" (ça a été), a witness to time and death; 3) The absent "Winter Garden Photograph" as an entry point for private affect; 4) The triad of Operator, Spectrum, and Spectator. It also explores the book's value as an analytical tool for affect and its complementary role to Sontag.
2025.11.05
kiji
Next page