--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: ... photography is an imprint or transfer…" description: "\"... photography is an imprint or transfer off the real; it is a photochemically processed trace causally connected to the thing in the world to which i..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/039/rosalind-e-krauss-42138_beach_photography-is-an-imprint-or-transfer-of_2102272.jpg" --- # ... photography is an imprint or transfer off the real; it… ![“... photography is an imprint or transfer off the real; it is a photochemically processed trace causally connected to the thing in the world to which it refers in a manner parallel to fingerprints or footprints or the rings of water that cold glasses leave on tables. The photograph is thus…” quote by Rosalind E. Krauss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/039/rosalind-e-krauss-42138_beach_photography-is-an-imprint-or-transfer-of_2102272.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/039/rosalind-e-krauss-42138_beach_photography-is-an-imprint-or-transfer-of_2102272.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/039/rosalind-e-krauss-42138_beach_photography-is-an-imprint-or-transfer-of_2102272.jpg) > “... photography is an imprint or transfer off the real; it is a photochemically processed trace causally connected to the thing in the world to which it refers in a manner parallel to fingerprints or footprints or the rings of water that cold glasses leave on tables. The photograph is thus generically distinct from painting or sculpture or drawing. On the family tree of images it is closer to palm prints, death masks, the Shroud of Turin, or the tracks of gulls on beaches.” [Rosalind E. Krauss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rosalind-e-krauss/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Photography captures a physical trace linked to its subject, similar to fingerprints, distinguishing it from other visual arts. **In simple terms:** Photos are physical traces of reality. Key Takeaway Recognize the unique materiality of photos. Themes art perception materiality trace identity Mood analytical contemplative introspective Type theoretical critical explanatory When to use this quote - museum curation - art criticism - educational lectures - documentary practice Key Concepts photographic ontology visual semiotics representation Questions to Reflect On - How does a photograph’s material trace affect its meaning? - Can a photograph ever be truly objective? A Different Perspective Photos still rely on interpretation and cultural context. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Beach](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beach/) [Cold](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cold/) [Connected](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/connected/) [Drawing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/drawing/) [Family Tree](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/family-tree/) [Fingerprints](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fingerprints/) [Footprint](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/footprint/) [Glasses](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/glasses/) [Gulls](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/gulls/) [Mask](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mask/) [Painting](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/painting/) [Palms](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/palms/) [Parallels](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/parallels/) [Photochemically Processed](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/photochemically-processed-4205632/) [Photograph](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/photograph/) [Photograph Generically](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/photograph-generically-4205630/) [Photography](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/photography/) [Photography Imprint](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/photography-imprint-4205629/) [Print](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/print/) [Real](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/real/) [Rings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/rings/) [Sculpture](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sculpture/) [Shrouds](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/shrouds/) [Tables](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/tables/) [Tables Photograph](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/tables-photograph-4205631/) [Track](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/track/) [Transfers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/transfers/) [Tree](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/tree/) [Water](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/water/) [World](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/world/) ## Related quotes > [Death and pain dominate this world, for though many are cured, they leave still weak, still tremulous, still knowing mortality has whispered to them;…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/denise-levertov/death-and-pain-dominate-this-world-for-though-many-are-cured-they/) [Denise Levertov](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/denise-levertov/) > [Glory is a shroud that posterity often tears from the shoulders of those who wore it when living.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pierre-jean-de-b-ranger/glory-is-a-shroud-that-posterity-often-tears-from-the-shoulders-of/) [Pierre-Jean de Beranger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pierre-jean-de-b-ranger/) > [People rarely win wars, governments rarely lose them. 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Krauss > [By exposing the multiplicity, the facticity, the repetition and stereotype at the heart of every aesthetic gesture, photography deconstructs the possibility of differentiating between…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rosalind-e-krauss/by-exposing-the-multiplicity-the-facticity-the-repetition-and/) [Rosalind E. Krauss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rosalind-e-krauss/) > [The frame announces that between the part of reality that was cut away and this part there is a difference; and that this segment…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rosalind-e-krauss/the-frame-announces-that-between-the-part-of-reality-that-was-cut/) [Rosalind E. Krauss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rosalind-e-krauss/) > [Photographic cropping is always experienced as a rupture in the continuous fabric of reality.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rosalind-e-krauss/photographic-cropping-is-always-experienced-as-a-rupture-in-the/) [Rosalind E. Krauss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rosalind-e-krauss/) > [Every photograph is the result of a physical imprint transferred by light reflections onto a sensitive surface. The photograph is thus a type of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rosalind-e-krauss/every-photograph-is-the-result-of-a-physical-imprint-transferred-by/) [Rosalind E. Krauss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rosalind-e-krauss/) > [To convulse reality from within, to demonstrate it as fractured spacing, became the collective result of all that vast range of techniques to which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rosalind-e-krauss/to-convulse-reality-from-within-to-demonstrate-it-as-fractured/) [Rosalind E. Krauss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rosalind-e-krauss/) > [Here is a paradox. It would seem that there cannot be surrealism and photography, but only photography or surrealism.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rosalind-e-krauss/here-is-a-paradox-it-would-seem-that-there-cannot-be-surrealism-and/) [Rosalind E. Krauss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rosalind-e-krauss/) > [No longer do we accept the 'sublimation model' according to which 'the function of art is to sublimate or transform experience, raising it from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rosalind-e-krauss/no-longer-do-we-accept-the-sublimation-model-according-to-which-the/) [Rosalind E. Krauss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rosalind-e-krauss/) > [More than a rejection or dissolution of the past, avant-garde originality is conceived as a literal origin, a beginning from ground zero, a birth.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rosalind-e-krauss/more-than-a-rejection-or-dissolution-of-the-past-avant-garde/) [Rosalind E. Krauss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rosalind-e-krauss/) > [Photography's vaunted capture of a moment in time is the seizure and freezing of presence. It is the image of simultaneity, of the way…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rosalind-e-krauss/photography-s-vaunted-capture-of-a-moment-in-time-is-the-seizure-and/) [Rosalind E. Krauss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rosalind-e-krauss/) [Explore all 10 Rosalind E. Krauss quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rosalind-e-krauss/) ## More Beach quotes > [I love being in Malibu. It's so cool there, and the water is just, it's nice and, and I love the beach. 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