On the occasion of the extraordinary article "The world as imagination"* from Thomas Steinfeld I was recently nudged to think of the deeper meanings, what reality really is - or might be. While he is describing the world's oldest, still existing photographic company - Fratelli Alinari of Florence, Italy - he offers two astounding changes in perspective.
First, he impressively states (translated with my own words): "Because it is truly not the case, that travelling serves the expansion of the personal horizon. Rather travels have - at least - to confirm expectations [...]". In conclusion, he disputes an ever since implicitness and shows in a plausible manner, that "the places to visit [...] have always been charted on an imaginary "Itinéraire". The - although imagined - horizon exists already necessary of its purpose and will furthermore merely be enriched. An ascertainment, which will be to explored in the more and more virulent virtual worlds with eager.
Upcoming Steinfeld concludes unerringly with a quote of Kracauer, when he derives, that a photograph not just only represents an object (or, as one might supplement, the reality). Rather a photo takes an object in possession, penetrates it, to conclude: What was a reality without pictures, transforms into a reality of pictures. Thus, a photograph changes the reality. Not only the perception of reality, but we recognize, with the accurate image of the world to a minimalist instant of time - what we would never be able to in natural ways (wherein lies the big difference to a painting, which always shows transitions), a - in fact - different image of the world, an image more in detail. After all, nowadays there are photograph-like pictures possible on nano level, which unravel new forms of knowledge, not seen before (in a literal way of meaning), e. g.: Pictures of atomic structures, of biological processes ... And this newly gained knowledge changes indeed reality: in a technical or economic manner, e. g. by creating new sorts of dirt resistant surfaces on nanostructual level or in the social environment in reaching a much higher stage of attentiveness. Or who not likes to present him-/herself in social media network with purely pores in the profile image?
In summary: An appearing simple article of the history of photography is able to show the meanwhile reached changes of reality through mankind - bravo.
*Original: Die Welt als Vorstellung, in: SZ Nr. 299 v. 30./31.12.2017/1.1.2018, S. 57. The subject is obviously inspired by Nietzsches "Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung".
