The article presents the theoretical views and, to a lesser extent, artistic practices of Joanna Zylinska, who in her artistic activity combines epistemological strategies of a researcher and theorist with her activities in the field of art. She develops in different manners an original project of philosophy as photography, or photography as a form of philosophizing. Posthumanist and post-anthropocentric inspirations and the inclusion of her reflections in a wider circle of a nonhuman turn constitute an epistemological framework of numerous statements devoted to the “photographic condition” in the age of dominance of digital technologies. The author argues that, in fact, photography has been a nonhuman practice since its beginnings, which is developed in her book Nonhuman Photography, preceded by the concepts of mediation and photomediation. In her latest proposals addressing the issues of the functioning of art in the era of algorithmic systems, the author develops the concept of undigital photography, which constitutes an extension of thinking about those manifestations of photography that are not of/by/for the human. The idea of “vision machines” (once proposed by Paul Virilio) takes the form of a holistic view of photography as a “medium of life,” which, unlike modernist descriptions of it as a “medium of death” (Roland Barthes), makes a significant contribution to both the theory and the history of photography. The synthetic presentation of Zylinska’s concepts is an attempt to describe and interpret the contemporary state of theoretical and methodological awareness in the field of contemporary image studies. It stems from the need to constantly reinterpret the canon of thinking about the medium of photography in the epoch of cooperation between human and non-human agencies in the area of pictorial production of images addressed to both people and machines.

Five (2003) Abbasa Kiarostamiego jest interpretowane w tym artykule w kontekstach medialnych, technologicznych i filozoficznych. Najpierw zostają przedstawione okoliczności powstania filmu, sens ewoluującego tytułu oraz różne wersje ekspozycyjne. W kolejnych pięciu częściach artykułu autor podejmuje następujące kwestie: inspiracje, jakie Kiarostami czerpał z twórczości Yasujirō Ozu, oraz utopijne marzenie o tworzeniu filmu bez autora (I); możliwości, jakie dała twórcy technologia cyfrowa (II); intencje stworzenia filmu bez historii (III); postantropocentryczna strategia wyrażająca się zwrotem ku przedmiotom (IV); pejzaż wizualny, który zostaje zastąpiony widzeniem na granicy widzialności (V). W zakończeniu artykułu autor interpretuje instalację Doors without Keys (2015) jako votum separatum wobec powszechnego dziś przekonania o dominacji ruchomych obrazów jako środków prezentowania rzeczywistości.

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In his diverse works, David Hockney has used, and still uses, various media, which in some periods of his activity gained leading significance, while in the following they were abandoned or temporarily abandoned. But no matter what medium in the given period was the main form of creativity, the focus of his interest has always been the issue of image and imaging. The article is devoted to the practice and theoretical recognition of photography, which was a kind of introduction to experiments with a moving image. The author refers to the artist's numerous publications on the theory and history of image and imaging (including Secret Knowledge, History of Images, On Photography). Photography led to Hockney's audiovisual realizations. This is a kind of repetition of the natural evolution and developmental progression of the media, also, and perhaps above all, in the technological dimension. The article is divided into three parts. In the first part, the author presents Hockney as a practitioner and theoretician, in whose activities both these activities are closely intertwined. This is a sign of the times: practice and theory are equally important, awareness of the medium, or artistic and aesthetic self-awareness of artists, is an expression of the spirit of the era in which an intuitive approach to art today seems inefficient, not to say impossible. Hockney appears to be an exemplary artist, who is extremely conceptual in his artistic practice as a consequence of his research on the history of art and a constantly developed set of his own theoretical findings. He is an artist discursively commenting not only on his work as an artist in many media (painting, drawing, graphics, set design, photography, film, computer graphics), but also an art and media theoretician reflecting on the fate of images in a changing media landscape. The second part of the article is devoted to the reconstruction of Hockney's theoretical reflections on photography and the analysis of his photographic projects. First of all, experimental Polaroid compositions created in the early eighties, named by the artist joiners, as well as photographic collages and photographic images realized in the later periods of the British artist's work. The third part considers digital movies, as Hockney calls them, audiovisual realizations referring to both his previous photographic works and experimental video films in which multi-camera systems are used.

Fotografia utrwala jedynie groteskowy i komiczny moment […], nie pokazuje człowieka, jakim, ogólnie rzecz biorąc, był za życia, fotografia jest podstępnym, perwersyjnym zafałszowaniem, każda fotografia, bez względu na to, przez kogo zrobiona, bez względu na to, kogo przedstawia, jest absolutnym pogwałceniem ludzkiej godności, potwornym zafałszowaniem natury, podłym barbarzyństwem. […] Wraz z wynalezieniem fotografii, a więc wraz z rozpoczęciem się tego procesu ogłupiania przed ponad stu laty, poziom umysłowy ludności świata nieustannie się obniża. To fotografie […] uruchomiły ów proces ogłupiania, który osiągnął tę w gruncie rzeczy zabójczą dla ludzkości prędkość w chwili, kiedy obrazy fotograficzne stały się ruchome 1. Karol Irzykowski niemal sto lat temu w Przedmowie do Dziesiątej muzy wyznawał: "Sprawiło mi przyjemność rozmyślać nad kinem jako dziedziną jeszcze przez myślicieli nie tkniętą" 2. Kwestia