“The Ontology of the Photographic Image” by Andre Bazin was a difficult piece to get through. Bazin makes the comment at one point that, “Perspective was the original sin of Western painting” (240). I found this to be an important statement, one to ponder over for while, yet, there are no conclusions or real meaning I can get from it on my own. Reading it, however, made it come across as very profound and heavy with insight. A few times actually, I found myself reading over passages in attempts to further digest what he intends to say. For the most part, his writing was dense and had to be read with careful attention to detail in order to fully interpret the message on photography and film that he delivers.
On page 241 Bazin says, “Photography affects us like a phenomenon in nature, like a flower or a snowflake whose vegetable or earthily origins are an inseparable art of their beauty.” This statement is intriguing to me and I enjoy how deeply rooted the feeling of photography is for Bazin; he definitely illustrates that feeling here. He sees photography as the truth and as a great phenomenon that is sweeping the earth. Every component and detail of the photograph is beautiful and it has so much to offer to the viewer. Photography is the real deal and Andre Bazin even refers to photography as “being” the model of which is the value and virtue of the ideal image (241).
It is obvious that Bazin feels photography is the greatest of all arts. This idea is proven when he says that painting is an inferior way of creating likeness. According to him, photography embalms time. The last statement he makes to close the essay says, “Photography is clearly the most important event in the history of plastic arts” (243). This again, reveals the allotted credit that is given to the magnificence of photography and how this surpasses other so called “plastic arts” at that time.
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