Hints… or cracks? Thomas Demand after photography

Abstract

The article begins with a brief reconstruction of the theoretical debate sparked by the photographic image through a few examples drawn from the early stages of the history of photography that brought into play notions such as the “hint” or the “empty sign.” It then observes how today, due to the disproportionate increase in the flow of images to which we are constantly exposed, that kind of experience and theoretical scope has become unattainable and distant. Within this horizon, the article examines the particular working method of contemporary artist Thomas Demand, suggesting that his approach skillfully instills suspicion and opacity onto the surface of seemingly transparent images. In this way, something of the threshold between experience and signification—belonging to the beginnings of the history of photography—becomes operative once again through the painstaking process of construction and staging carried out by Demand.