Photographic post-truth: from idealised perception to the priority of the image

Arguably, the development of the photographic medium[1] follows only now the postmodern dismantling of truth. The recent outrage about post-truth society indicates that the force of postmodern thought left the realm of academic speculation and now designates the actuality of 21st century life. However, 20th century philosophy had already turned from the epistemological foundation of absolute truth to embrace the limits and complexity of truth as a facet of experience. Rather than putting our embodied, perceiving being with others at the root of understanding the world, photography[2] essentially clung to a singular, straightforward verifiable reality. Only now, photography prioritises the image and thereby questions the traditional status of truth. I will illustrate how 20th century understandings of photography[3] function by idealising perception, maintaining a traditional truth concept: Idealised objectivity: The notion of the technical image supresses the subjective bias of photographic imagery and creates the illusion of a depersonalised perspective echoing ‘God’s point of view.’ Social perception: Even acknowledging the function of individual view points and visual selection, we understand photographs as invitations to view given scenes with the photographer. This still idealises the verification, prioritising a knowable, singular reality. Idealised indexicality: 20th century photography was largely discussed in terms of content, effectively suppressing image consciousness. The photographic image invites us to look through ‘it’ at the world itself. Subsequently, I argue that 21st century photography echoes 20th century thought pointing to three aspects that counteract traditional photographic functionalities and thereby allow for the primacy of the photographic image. Importantly, this is not fully accomplished, but instigates the perplexity of uncertainty as to how we see our world. Photographs are increasingly seen as distorting their subjects, not necessarily as intentional deceptions (as in photo ...