Fotografia jako rzecz-relikwia. Motyw „ołtarzyka” w literaturze i filmie
The Photograph as the Object-relic. The Motif of the “Altar” in Literature and Cinema

Summary/Abstract: This text is an attempt at presenting the photograph as a material object. In doing so the author portrayed the photograph as an item changing into a relic thanks to the cult with which it is surrounded by its recipients. Owing to their connotations and functions, objects-relics, even those conspicuous for their frequently hybrid states, are differentiated from the fetishes and souvenirs with which they are commonly identified. The photograph-relic, worshipped and displayed on sui generis altars, is also a literary and film motif, here subjected to detailed analysis. Despite the fact that an interpretation of selected examples of photographs-relics refers predominantly to their material dimension (showing the reification of the object of reference, as if concealed by the material qualities of the photograph subjected to cult practices) this does not mean that the psychic and transcendent sphere ceases to exist. In the case of the photograph-relic and the photograph in general material and spiritual spheres appear to be inextricable and indivisible. The described photographs-relics testify to a certain paradox: when they are worshipped and become the object of a cult, they reveal, first and foremost, their material properties through which, with redoubled force, the photographed person speaks.

• Details
• Contents