Oldal 36 [36]
34
Dagnostaw Demski
at that time. Periods of relative closeness between the sides are interwoven with
periods of polarization. Local conflicts and war find their expression in visual repre¬
sentations. It appears that the new type of total war (World Wars I and II) changed
the way in which distance was been shown. Distance can be shown through de¬
monization, dehumanization, of the Others. Dehumanization legitimizes the use
of violence.’ Greater or smaller distance may be recognized in various ways, for
instance, as disparate (and sometimes recognized as “dark”) elements of the com¬
mon social field. The use of humour, irony, and sometimes satire testifies to the
existence of a certain hierarchy of values and, by the same token, to the divisions.
The distance between two represented sides expresses the position and the ideas
of the author and points out to the separation resulting from the author’s notions.
‘This differs from what we would call direct contact with reality. The degree of con¬
tact with (separation from) reality may be evaluated on the basis of the importance
attributed to the details of the presented side. Lack of a sufficient number of details
may result from the authors intentions, from lack of information, or from lack of
direct contact. In the case of photography, this process takes place when the object
transcends the original context of creation (e.g. family photographs) and becomes
a representation. In this manner the representation of something new displaces the
original image resulting from the initial context. The new comes into being in the
new system and replaces the time of creation of the image.* The context change
results in the image being placed within a new order.
We encounter different types of distance. In the first type, the distance between
the two sides as seen from the position of the author is presented. In the second
type, the distance of the image itself from the reality is presented. Both depict
relationships; in the first, the picture is drawn from one side, and in the second, it
sheds light more on the production of subsequent alternative forms of relationship.
We recognize both of these types on the basis of different elements—the first, on
how the Other is presented, the second, on how and in what way the relationship
between the sides is presented.
If the context were changed, then it would be important to pay attention to
the medium itself, to the use of a specific tool in specific circumstances and with
a specific intention, and, later, to the manner in which the object is preserved—the
archive (i.e., the modification of context). Particular significance is gained by the
very medium, the technique employed, the so-called human factor, and the strate¬
gies of immediacy resulting from them.
7” The works of Alexander Laban Hinton present extreme cases in which the distance is taken to its utmost
(2002a, 2002b).
8 Developing the notion of the archive, Van Alphen writes that the collection replaces history with
classification, with order beyond the realm of temporality. In the collection, time is not something to be
restored to an origin; rather, all time is made simultaneous, or synchronous, within the collection’s world
(2014: 60).