Photography as a Threefold Sign

This paper is a study into the ontology of photography from the viewpoint of semiotics. Although we are surrounded by photographic images, the theoretical positions that attempt to explain the nature of the photograph still provide no uniform or satisfactory answer. We are surrounded by definitions of the nature of the photographic image that are conflicting and at times contradictory. The inadequacy to provide a uniform system of the theoretical frameworks that attempt to explain the photograph is unsatisfactory. Through an examination of the leading theories that have attempted to comment on the ontology of photography a paradox is revealed, formulated as such by Roland Barthes (1915-1980), one of the most important French thinkers to emerge from the post-war period. Photography is historically believed to be an emissary of truth, but at the same time the photographic image is as open to interpretation, as any other image is. The investigation on the ontology of photography is centered around the theoretical works of Walter Benjamin, André Bazin, Roland Barthes, Susan Sontag, Jean Baudrillard, Vilém Flusser and Rosalind Krauss. Drawing on the theory of signs of American philosopher C.S. Peirce (1839- 1914) the hypothesis, that the photograph is a threefold sign is made and through an adaptation of Peirce’s theory an attempt is made to explain the photograph and the theories that surround it, using the science of semiotics