The Resistance Of Photography

The issue of “resistance to ideology” is an important part of John Berger’s(1926-2017)visual theory.Berger’s visual theory is mainly divided into two parts,“the ideology of viewing” and “resistance to ideology”.In terms of“resistance to ideology”,Berger attaches great importance to the resistance of photography.He believed that the advent of photography changed the way of viewing.Exploring the resistance of photography to ideology is not only a supplement to existing research but also with practical significance.The core of Berger’s visual theory is that artwork inevitably becomes a carrier of ideology,but artwork also has the opportunity to resist the erosion of ideology by itself.Photography has both artistic attributes and tool attributes,which makes the relationship between photography and ideology more complicated.The existing researches are mostly about the ideology contained in the viewing of artworks.They rarely mention the possibility of artworks resisting ideology,nor emphasize the “dual attributes” that artworks are both eroded by ideology and capable of resisting ideology.The main content of this thesis is to explore the resistance of photography to the ideology of viewing based on Berger’s visual theory.Under the premise of clarifying the complex relationship between photography and ideology,this article explores the resistance of photography to ideology.After detailed discussions,this article draws the following conclusions:firstly,photography is more susceptible to ideological encroachment than other arts,and can even become an excellent ideological carrier;secondly,photography can resist the ideological encroachment,a natural ability of photography;thirdly,photography has a natural talent to resist ideology due to its two characteristics.The two characteristics: the first is that the photographic frame takes the way of seeing things all the time.This way breaks the principle of perspective and awakens the experience,which is the key to resisting ideology;the second is that the shooting method capturing in an instant and accepting everything makes it difficult for ideology to over interfere with photography.This article is divided into five parts.The first part is the introduction,explaining the existing research of John Berger,as well as the source and significance of the topic.The second part is to comb the structure of “dual attributes”,a piece of art in John Berger’s visual theory,which is the original cornerstone of this research.The third part focuses on clarifying the ideological issues in photography.The fourth part explores how photography resists ideology.And,the fifth part comes to the conclusion,clarifying the practical significance of this research while summarizing its main contents.