Tracing the Individual Body

Gunning's references are amazing. He brings in various characters of authority such as Walter Benjamin and Holmes. He tries to depict photography not just from an artistic point of view, but from various angles that demonstrates the marvel of photography itself. The first interesting point Gunning presents shows photography becoming a part of modernity. Photography was easily circulated and was a technological advancement, which Gunning argues is a, "change in experience." This was very fascinating to me, because to me, presently, something as simple as a movie or a photograph does not hold such a significant place as when people use to go to theatres just to watch a reel of moving landscape attached to a train. The incorporation of the photograph to identify criminals, and thus melting into fictional detective stories also caught my interest. I thought it was interesting how pop culture is influenced by machines, much like today. The body, was by far my favorite subject in this piece. The body, the ability to view it from all angles, to capture and document certain characteristics of it is amazing. It seems as though it captures a body in time forever. Gunning argues that, "THe photograph mediates between the public and the private, attesting to an intimacy of bodies that has now become a matter of record." The battle between intimacy and public display of bodies is radical. Today, we see bodies in tabloid magazines. I feel like Gunning did an awesome job incorporating passages and different elements of pop and intellectual culture.