The photographer could not depict

mostakimvip02

According to this view the photograph cannot depict hell. I was delighted that one of the most important artists of the twentieth century made an observation that coincidentally I have been struggling to support and explain to my students for years. The reaction of the fellow columnist was selfevident and I believe in line with the majority of our readers. In other words how can photography not depict hell when we are bombarded daily by images of destruction and misery of burnt houses and destroyed houses Except that Munch was not talking about describing hell but about bringing hell to the level of an artistic allegory. And not all arts can do everything in the same way.

Each has its own privileged space. If for example we try to e-commerce photo editing transfer the description of hell to musical notes we will find that this is impossible unless we end up with something correspondingly ridiculous with military expeditions. If we again try to interpret the photographed tragic events with captions other than those mentioned in the circumstances of their shooting we will find that the photographs merely illustrate what we have already decided we see the sad woman or the burning house could be due to a thousand other reasons. But Munch's Scream with the red color that covers it whatever our approach is Hell itself. It is all hells together inside us and outside us. It is the concept of hell.

  
Photography should and can do the same if it uses its great metaphorical and referential power. Not her narrative weakness. The painting depicts an imaginary image which the painter transforms into a real image which is none other than the painting itself. In other words the painter depicts his imagination. Even when he is in front of the subject of his painting. Photography on the contrary isolates a trace not an image of reality to hint at an image of the imagination. So it cannot depict hell not even imaginary hell. But he can allude to her. And since allusion always and necessarily works indirectly metaphorically and abstractly hell even if he were in front of it. But he can refer to it and turn it into a trace of his imagination.