Psychology of the photographic, cinematic, televisual, and digital image

Drawing on André Bazin's notion of the psychology of the image, this paper attempts to distinguish among a horizon of various photographic images and imaging processes in terms of the different illusions of presence those images embody as well as the senses of temporality they convey. It explores the relative indexicality of these images while also questioning the criterion of indexicality as a measure for the comparison of images in the digital era. Rather than thinking about indexicality, the paper argues that contemporary scholarship on the nature of the image should focus on the spectator's experience of the image.