On the Portrait in Photography

Abstract

Photography is entirely different from other media that came before it. First, photography is the automatic method of reproducing images by the “camera” machine, not by human eyes and hands. Second, photography is a technique of reproduction which makes it possible for everyone to have the same images. So the meaning and value of these images lie in countless social exchanges.

Because of this nature to photography, the photographic portrait also began to perform a different role from the portrait in oil painting. The portrait in photography has a paradoxical status, functioning both “honorifically” and “repressively.”

Traditionally, the portrait in oil painting was both the description of an individual and the inscription of social identity. It reflects our own self-image that we hold in our mind. The portrait in photography extends, accelerates, and popularizes this traditional function. But that means that photography subverts the privileges inherent in portraiture. When we see our own photograph, it makes us perceive “the other” which hides in us. On the other hand, when we see a photograph of other people, it makes us see a real living subject as a mere surface of images.

This paper deals with this paradoxical status of the portrait in photography.