Photography and Fetish

In order to explore the contribution of Christian Metzs' "Photography and Fetish" to the understanding of the photographic image in the modern era, it is important to look at the term fetish as it is explained in the dictionary as well as at modern psychoanalitical (especially Freudian) techniques because this knowledge is pivotal for the comprehension of the essay. Fetish: a thing to which more respect or attention is given than normal or sensible: He …

…view of a piece of work especially if the work has a sexual theme or a general talismanic or warding nature. Visual images are far more easily understood using all of ones mental facilities rather than just immediate sensory perception. Any knowledge, experience and fetishes that the observer has must be used in order to fully understand a photograph and Metz has explained that a persons viewpoint changes their perception of a piece of work.