Stillness and Movement: Photographic Essays and the Moving Images in Contemporary Digital Culture

Abstract

In the age of digital re-materialization and the circulation of visual content, the discussion on the nature of the photographic image has its implications on the medium itself. In the context of new and interconnected media, it is somewhat relevant to reconsider the definitions of traditional visual forms. This article will examine the relations between photographic images in different media contexts. If it is considered that the photographic books and essays are the assemblages of still photographs structured in a particular order, the first question that arises is how to, in the first place, define the structural norms in the context of contemporary circulationism. Thematically and formally, the relations between photography and cinema, duration and time, movement and stillness have been questioned historically. In the contemporary context, we can find similar examples present in the form of cinema also as an expression in everyday communication on different platforms, which Lev Manovich describes as a specific language. This article will examine the nature of that language, the correlation between still and moving mediums of photography. Finally, the aim is to recontextualize the definition of cinematic photo-essay in its articulation in social media platforms, as the main generators in circulationsim of images in contemporary digital culture.

Article received: April 6, 2022; Article accepted: June 21, 2022; Published online: September 15, 2022; Original scholarly paper