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Photography or post-human image and its implicated historical-philosophical meaning - Some Considerations on S. Kracauer’s Philosophy of Culture and Theory of Photography

Sun Kyu Ha 1

1홍익대학교

Candidate

ABSTRACT

Siegfried Kracauer is usually regarded as a theorist of film. But he was also a significant philosopher of culture and history who has deeply cogitated about the modern world and popular culture since the late 19th century. The reason why he paid attention to the phenomena of mass culture with great passion is that he wanted to redeem 'small histories of nameless people' or 'unknown realms of human experience'(terra incognita). The aim of this paper is to inquire into methodological features of Kracauer’s philosophy of culture and his theory of photography. In a first step this paper examines some crucial motifs of his thoughts on culture philosophy, such as a subjective and passionate observer of modern world, his sceptical and ‘opened waiting’ attitude, his intention of theological salvation, his materialistic-dialectic viewpoint of history, and his strategy of ‘micro-physical’ critique and philosophical redemption of concrete phenomena. Then I move on to the detailed analysis of his remarkable essay “Photography” in 1927 which is to be undoubtedly esteemed as the representative example of his philosophy of culture. In this part, special emphasis should be laid on some meaningful observations and insights such as a contrary character between photographic record and human memory, the paradox of photographic moments, the internal relationship between photography and historicism, the essential difference of photography and art work in the traditional sense, his ambivalent view of mythical risk and subversive use of moving images in photography and film.

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