The dispute for the photographic. Crossroads of hegemonic theories

Abstract

This article proposes a critical review of certain hegemonic photographic theories, establishing a crossover between authors who have developed intertextual dialogues in response to similar concerns. In a chronological order, we first analyze academic works that emerged in the 1980s, which approached photography from semiotic studies based on the theory of the index in pursuit of ontological searches of the medium. Then, a series of authors from the late 1990s rejected this semiotic analysis and proposed specific theoretical approaches that justified the technical specificities of the medium. Thirdly, contributions that theorize the complexities of the use of photography as documentary testimony will be revisited, and finally, the analytical tools proposed by visual studies since the new millennium will be presented, which allow us to question and challenge previous reductionist and instrumental conceptions.