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 Source: Excerpt Library (Photography)

The study of photographism and cameraless photography represents a move away from traditional image-taking toward an intellectual and philosophical investigation of the medium itself. The term "photographist," coined by scholar Arthur C. Danto, describes an artist who uses "the photographic" as a tool for philosophical reflection on the nature of art. This approach often prioritizes the meaning and context of images over traditional photographic conventions.

Techniques in this field often bypass the camera entirely, reaching back to the origins of the medium:

• Heliograms: Susan Sontag notes that the first cameraless photographs were heliograms, produced in the 1820s by Nicéphore Niepce.
• Photograms: These images are created by placing objects directly onto light-sensitive surfaces. While historically significant through the Rayographs of Man Ray and the work of László Moholy-Nagy, they were often regarded by the mainstream as marginal exploits.
• Robert Heinecken’s Innovations: As a leading "photographist," Heinecken created photograms directly from magazine pages and captured cameraless images off television screens.

The purpose of these cameraless methods is frequently to critique mass culture and consumerism. Heinecken, for instance, used photograms to juxtapose hard-core pornography with glossy advertising, forcing a reflection on the raw power of images and how their significance is "impregnated" by the channel through which they are distributed.

Furthermore, photographism challenges the traditional essence of the photograph. While many theorists believe a photograph's power lies in its "certificate of presence" (the certainty that the subject was physically there), cameraless techniques like re-photographing or appropriation shift the focus toward the "symbolic complex" of the image. By removing the "black box" of the camera from the equation, these artists highlight that a technical image is often a transcoded concept rather than a simple reflection of the world.

Would you like me to create a tailored report on the evolution of cameraless photography and its role in modern art criticism based on these sources?