On the border: the difference between depth and surface in the study of images

Abstract

This paper explores depth as an aspect of the visual and of images. There is a range of theories that approach visual and aesthetic phenomena as material objects. The author of the paper criticizes these approaches as reductionist and argues that they represent only a small part of what those phenomena actually are. In order to construct an alternative perspective on the nature of images, the author explores the concept of depth in its oppo­sition to the concept of a pictorial surface that images are reduced to by the mentioned approaches. The phenomenon of depth is discussed in this paper in two ways. The first one refers to the phenomenology of depth and is based on Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s writ­ings. According to Merleau-Ponty, depth is not just width in profile. Width and length represent properties of objects as they are, whereas depth represents the properties that objects display according to me and my look (i.e. according to the first person perspec­tive). To that extent, depth is defined by the perspective of a look. Similar reasoning is given by J. Lacan in his study of anamorphosis. The second modus of the phenomenon of depth is discussed in the part of the paper that deals with projective geometry. Based on these two areas – phenomenology and projective geometry – the author manages to ex­tract the key aspect of depth and its appearances in visual experience and visual images.