知與行：記兩戰之間攝影求知的挫敗經驗

Cognition and Modern Photography of Between-wars: A Story of Defeat?

兩戰之間，現代攝影在技術、實用、美學與論述各方面皆蓬勃發展。然而，這段時期，卻面臨著接續不斷的政治經濟危機與國際緊張情勢。在歐洲有不少學者反思技術發展對文明進程的影響，對時局曾表達了深切的憂慮；這個議題，班雅明則透過論攝影的文章具體地提出來，其中的核心問題即是攝影如何作為認知工具，如何再現真實，如何更有效地介入政治；簡言之，他也希望從省思技術面的問題來尋思歷史發展的走向。而在同樣的文化氛圍中，當時的一些新古典畫作，也曾藉著溯自文藝復興時代以來的「憂鬱」寓言主題來暗示當時人面對時代危機的無力感。本論文除了參考呂貢（Olivier Lugon）對於現代紀實攝影發展抽絲剝繭的文獻研究之外，也借由美術史學者克雷（Jean Clair）對當時的「憂鬱」主題繪畫的詮釋，從其方法與推論所獲得的啟示，來加以檢視這個當時特有的、關於攝影作為認知工具的疑慮。不過，本論文所要探討的，絕非要在特定歷史事件與一項項攝影流派的更迭或論述的提出之間，作簡單的類比聯接，也無意解決攝影作為認知工具能否發揮效用的疑慮，而是要追溯這樣的疑慮如何形成於當時的論述；與其說是要歸結此時期攝影生產的成就，或界定攝影影像的「本質」，不如說是要觀察當時各種論述隨著時局起伏而有的種種爭辯與矛盾。從這些矛盾論述的消長過程，我們或可領會當時人何以陷入了求知困境所引起的憂鬱當中。兩戰之間，攝影的憂鬱，毋寧是在注視影像之觀者主體那方：寫〈攝影小史〉（1931）時期的班雅明或許亦曾一時間流露了那般憂鬱的注目？

Based upon Olivier Lugon's recent research on documentary photography in the between-wars period, this article consider two related aspects of photography: its role as an instrument for knowledge, and its function of representing reality. In this light, Jean Clair's study of the melancholy subject in paintings of the same period, inspired by the iconology of Erwin Panofsky, provides some crucial points for examining the melancholy in photography. Our intention is not to find out a simple analogy between a certain socio-political event and its impact on such a photography school or such a style. We will neither decide how the photography as knowledge instrument may function better than otherwise, evaluate the very fructuous photography production at that time, or set out to define the ＂essence＂ of this medium. Rather, our major concern will be the multiple and even conflicting debates and polemics about photographic cognition, discourses that change so quickly over such a tumulus era: that is why melancholy as a re-defined allegory can offer us a new angle from which to describe this historical period. Unlike the paintings, the photography does not represent straightforwardly the melancholy as an allegoric figure, but the melancholic contemplation appears by the side of the spectators of pictures: this might be, for example, the cause of the passing sense of defeat and anxiety of Walter Benjamin-whose concern is principally a political one-while writing his ＂Little History of Photography＂ in 1931.