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Vilem Flusser Quotes

...there is no everyday activity which does not aspire to be photographed, filmed or videotaped. For there is a general desire to be endlessly remembered and endlessly repeatable.

...there is no everyday activity which does not aspire to be photographed, filmed or videotaped. For there is a general desire to be endlessly remembered and endlessly repeatable.

Vilem Flusser
Everyday, Desire, Doe
Vilém Flusser (2013). “Towards a Philosophy of Photography”, p.20, Reaktion Books

The act of photography is like going on a hunt in which photographer and camera merge into one indivisible function. This is a hunt for new states of things, situations never seen before, for the improbable, for information.

Vilem Flusser
Photography, Cameras, Information
Vilém Flusser (2013). “Towards a Philosophy of Photography”, p.39, Reaktion Books

He who writes must master the rules of grammar. He who shoots photographs needs only to follow the instructions as given by the camera.... This leads to the paradox that the more people shoot photographs, the less they are capable of deciphering them.

Vilem Flusser
Writing, People, Cameras
Vilém Flusser (1984). “Towards a Philosophy of Photography”

The task of a philosophy of photography is to reflect upon [the] possibility of freedom - and thus its significance - in a world dominated by apparatuses; to reflect upon the way in which, despite everything, it is possible for human beings to give significance to their lives in the face of the chance necessity of death. Such a philosophy is necessary because it is the only form of revolution left open to us.

Vilem Flusser
Photography, Philosophy, Giving
Vilém Flusser (2013). “Towards a Philosophy of Photography”, p.82, Reaktion Books

Both those taking snaps and documentary photographers... have not understood information. What they produce are camera memories, not information, and the better they do it, the more they prove the victory of the camera over the human being.

Vilem Flusser
Memories, Victory, Cameras
Vilém Flusser (2013). “Towards a Philosophy of Photography”, p.59, Reaktion Books

Photographers encode their concepts as photographic images so as to give others information, so as to produce models for them and thereby to become immortal in the memory of others.

Vilem Flusser
Memories, Giving, Information
Vilém Flusser (2000). “Towards a Philosophy of Photography”, p.48, Reaktion Books

Photographers, it is true, do not work but they do do something: They create, process, and store symbols.

Vilem Flusser
Photographer, Process, Stores
Vilém Flusser (2013). “Towards a Philosophy of Photography”, p.25, Reaktion Books

With every (informative) photograph, the photographic program becomes poorer by one possibility while the photographic universe becomes richer by one realization.

Vilem Flusser
Realization, Photograph, Possibility
Vilém Flusser (2013). “Towards a Philosophy of Photography”, p.26, Reaktion Books

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