Truth claim (photography)

Truth claim, in photography, is a term Tom Gunning uses to describe the prevalent belief that traditional photographs accurately depict reality. He states that the truth claim relies on both the indexicality and visual accuracy of photographs.

Charles Peirce's term 'indexicality' refers to the physical relationship between the object photographed and the resulting image.Paul Levinson emphasises the ability of photography to capture or reflect "a literal energy configuration from the real world" through a chemical process. Light sensitive emulsion on the photographic negative is transformed by light passing through the lens and diaphragm of a camera. Levinson relates this characteristic of the photograph to its objectivity and reliability, echoing Andre Bazin's belief that photography is free from the "sin" of subjectivity.

A similar argument has been made for motion pictures by Stephen Maguire. Lev Manovich labels cinema the art of the index, its traditional identity lying in its ability to capture reality.Denis McQuail likewise argues that film is capable of manipulating the "...seeming reality of the photographic message without loss of credibility."

Gunning states that a photograph must also have "iconicity". To represent "truth" it must resemble the object it represents, which is not an inevitable characteristic of an index.

Levinson suggests that icons have a powerful effect on individuals, particularly the "direct image" due to the "sheer ease and sensual satisfaction" of viewing it.

Gunning attributes the human fascination with photographs with a sense of the relationship between photography and reality, though he claims that the "perceptual richness and nearly infinite detail" of the image itself is more significant than a knowledge of its indexicality. He cites Bazin's idea that photography has an "irrational power to bear away our faith."

Further, Susan Sontag relates the belief in a photograph's ability to capture 'reality' to the development of certain human practices. Since a picture confers on events "a kind of immortality (and importance) it would never otherwise have enjoyed," she explains, the act of taking photographs has become essential to the experience of world travel. The possibility of 'true' photographs leads to a compulsion to "[convert] experience into an image" to "make real what one is experiencing."

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