Wittgenstein on Photography

“We regard the photograph, the picture on our wall, as the object itself (the man, the landscape, and so on) depicted there. This need not have been so. We could easily imagine people who did not have this relationship to pictures. Who, for example, would be repelled by photographs, because a face without color and even perhaps a face in reduced proportions struck them as inhuman.” —Ludwig Wittgenstein

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13 thoughts on “Wittgenstein on Photography

  1. Stephen J

    …as indeed pointed out by Picasso, when an acquaintance removed a photo of his wife from his wallet to show him just how beautiful she was to behold.

    Picasso said… Yes, small though, isn’t she.

    I have been wondering why I never got past reading some of Tolstoy’s philosophical writings. “Modern” philosophy, I realised was merely an excuse for the acceptance of socialism.

      1. Stephen J

        … and I ain’t baitin’ Rob…

        I mean it.

        Philosophy ended with Edmund Burke…

        … oh and Roger Scruton.

  2. Eric de montigny

    One can imagine a fashion statement, a man wearing a hoody shot by a photographer in armani suit. I dont intend my comment as a political one.

  3. Eric de montigny

    Well Rob, if you look at the post ´Inventorying an Obsession´ on leicaphilia site you will get it.
    Sometimes my jokes fall flat because i assume peoples are in my head and shares all my references.

    1. Rob Campbell

      You’re not alone, Eric: I have several people in my head, some that I like and others not so much. Some gave me parts of my life that became a mess, but what can I do? They are all part of the holistic moi and have to live together under a relatively small size of hat,. C’est la vie. I wish one of them was a cook!

      😉

      1. Leicaphila Post author

        You’re starting to scare me, Rob. Between your head voices and Stephen’s nascent fascism, I may have to rethink the reader’s comments section.

  4. Rob Campbell

    But my voices have always been around, Tim. Everybody has them: they are often dominated by those two cats who say fight or flight; however, in my case they are both redundant as I can neither run not fight anymore. As you know, nature abhors a vacuum, and so I have to extemporise and bring on new characters just to retain a sort of balanced, happy status quo. Not that I succeed very often, but I do manage to surprise myself now and again, and have a bit of a giggle when nobody can hear.

    But Willie Shakespeare had it right when he advised against sleeping: that’s the time when strangers come a-knocking – well, not so much knocking as bursting right into my world and giving me little adventures that I would rather avoid, and just keep on sleeping until the need arises for a pee, which is usually a couple of times per sleeping period which isn’t a hassle in summer, but in winter, lasts just long enough to freeze the bed again by the time I get back in and try to use my remaining heat sensors in order to find the places I’d heated before being driven upwards and out. So far, I have not had any dreams about politics: that would be well over the top.

    I was surprised to hear that retired POTUSI are still given security briefings as a courtesy, after they are out of office. Seems the last one may be excluded in case he “lets anything slip,” which is quite a thought.

  5. Stephen J

    Rob, I hear ye in regard to freezing España on winter nights, my long time friend and inveterate lefty went to live in Moratella in Murcia, where the wine is cheap and the nights are a tad effin freezing. It wasn’t long before he snuffed it on a January night, he never made it back to London again.
    Anyway commenters may be dismayed to see the ‘nascent fascist’ return to this column…
    I have spent the last week trying to pass a kidney stone, unsuccessfully, and I am currently holed up in Guys hospital, having a surgical intervention. Pain as any fool no, is depressing, I have endured 50 of my 64 years with regular bouts of the stuff, but Crohn’s pain is a walk in the park compared to the pain I have just been through. Not just depressing which often results in intemperate commentary, with stone pain one just shuts up and whimpers and occasionally screams.
    BTW Fascists are a flavour of socialism, which is anathema to a non CONserative voting ‘real conservative’ a very different thing from a socialist-light Tory.
    I might bore you all shitless if Tim consents to a further entry following my studiously ignored piece from a few months back.
    Feel free to ignore it as well, at least it will be there.
    PS: Just went out for a ciggie, my worst trait apart from what Tim mistakenly calls my ‘ naked fascism’…
    Tim I sincerely hope that you are continuing to mend your poor tummy?

  6. Rob Campbell

    Sorry about the stones – if they are made of calcium – which may not be the case, I really don’t know – you’d be forgiven for thinking they could be dissolved somehow via regular meds. I think that over here they destroy them with ultrasonics. What a dodgy vehicle we inhabit.

    I wouldn’t have found your post under normal circumstances, because older threads seem to die of natural causes, and there appears to be no format to alert of recent posts in the various, older threads. I just had a random look to have something interesting to do before going to bed, and found this.

    Hang on in there.

    1. Stephen J

      Thank-you Rob, I am back home now and quite sore, hospital saves when you are sick but it is great to escape.

      BTW: My little friend is still with me, but out of harm’s way back where it came from following a little surgical tweak.

      As you said, it is made of calcium oxalate, my little critter is 4mm small, it will be lasered out under a local anaesthetic in a few weeks.

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