„TO-CO-BYŁO” (?). O DOŚWIADCZANIU CZASOPRZESTRZENI SFOTOGRAFOWANEJ

Abstract

The analysis of an old pre-war photo representing a part of the Łódź district – Bałuty – provokes the following questions: Is it possible – although the photograph retains only a fraction of past time and space – to meet the reality which was once present. Do we experience the photographed space and time closed in a frame? How can we do that? Does this experience – if possible – depend on our individual memories and perception? In finding answers to these questions, above all, I refer to some of Roland Barthes' concepts. According to them, when we look at a photo we can experience the past directly as a past reality, without recourse to narrative mediation. But we cannot make attempts to reinterpret the past. The category of chronotope, widely discussed by the Russian scientist Mikhail Bakhtin, turns out to be helpful and very inspiring, as well. The term chronotope refers to the idea of inseparable connection of time and space and the conviction that any contact with the area of meanings should be made only through the spatio-temporal gate.