Abstract
The invention of photography definitely changed our way of representing the world and the self. In this paper I try to show a portion of such transformation by way of regarding photography as a kind of narrative act. Painting is a 'depiction' by human eyes and hands, and depends on the particular cultural code of representation. But photography is the direct 'trace' of nature. According to C.S. Peirce, we could call the semiotic status of photographic image 'icon=index'. Photography as index does not imprint the reality of presence but that of 'once-was'. Moreover, to release the shutter means to put an end to a sequence of real incident. What photography imprints is the reality of 'once-was' and 'already-ended'. And the coherent incident structured by both the beginning and the end is a narrative by definition. Photography is the apparatus of structuring the reality as a fragment of narrative. What is, then, the peculiarity of the photographic narrative in contrast with other forms of narrative, such as painting, chronicle, history, fiction, reminiscence and the traditional narrative of self-image? That is the main subject of my paper.
