Yannis Karpouzis

    Karpouzis Yannis: Curriculum Vitae
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Supervisor: Elena Hamalidi

Members: Kostas Ioannidis, Ulrik Helthof

PhD research topic:

The definitive and physical relation between a photograph and its referent (indexicality) has been at the core of the discursive practices of Photography Theory. Although this relation, its meaning and usefulness, has been aggressively challenged by post-structural critical theories, the always absent "real" seems to recurringly haunt the medium either in its artistic or in its applied functions (memory, science, testimony). The crux of photographic ontology and the notion that differentiates photographs from other images is the fact that photographs are Indexes translated into Icons, signs that establish meaning through the effect of resemblance. The aim of the suggested dissertation plan is to show that this displacement is made possible through an abundance of medial, technical, cultural and ultimately aesthetic processes. It is argued that photographs are neither empty signs devoid of meaning nor pure analogues of reality but indexical items always supercharged by intentional or unintentional aesthetic manipulations. Through this intervention, a double theoretical concern finds a way to be resolved as the photograph retains its connection to the referent, the "thing that happened" along with its aspect of artifice that places her inside the art canon by virtue of its unique status as an Indexical Icon.