26

Photography and surrealism

27
What is a surrealist photograph
because it is vrapped up in cloth and tied vith rope
(see ligure :,. Lven vithout any caption or available
explanation, the photograph is nevertheless an entirely
believable sign, ve can see and recognize vhat it shovs.
1he picture depicts something vrapped up, or rather,
a thing vhich ve believe to be something vrapped
up. Here the mimetic tunction ot the photograph is
itselt not challenged or disturbed, merely trustrated, in
that ve cannot see beyond the vrapping and can only
guess as to the thing underneath it. Any strangeness is
thus attributed to the enigma ot the thing signited,
not to the photographic sign itselt and ve are in tact
dependent upon mimesis tor the enigma. Lven it ve
vere contronted by the object in the photograph (the
three-dimensional object vrapped and covered in cloth,,
there vould be little more that ve could tell about
the object underneath except by the size and overall
three-dimensional shape.
II
1he vrapping acts as a veil to
trustrate our lust ot the eye to see more, to see beyond
the veil cloth in either circumstance ot the picture or
the object.
I2
What is enigmatic in the picture is the object
(the signited meaning,, not the picture as a signiter (no
matter hov much this violates common-sense notions
ot the object and picture as the same thing,, as the
title Man Pay gave the picture contrms: The Enigma
of Isadore Ducasse.
I3

1he prophotographic structure is valid so long as
the content does not contaminate the torm ot the
photograph itselt, vhich is vhere an image vould tall
into the third category ot enigmatic signitier, not an
enigmatic signitied.
I4
A test case ot these distinctions
can be made vith another photograph by Man Pay,
this time trom the trst surrealist periodical Littrature
(no. , October +,::, see ligure ,.
1he use ot photographs as a teature in their ovn right
by the surrealists began in +,:: in Littrature vith this
image by Man Pay. 1itled Voici le domaine de Rrose Slavy.
Vue prise en aroplane . Comme il est aride. Comme il est
fertile. Comme il est joyeux. Comme il est triste!, an image
more commonly knovn today simply as Dust Breeding.
In Littrature this picture accompanied an article on
Marcel Duchamp. Is this picture an illustration ot the
object ot vhich it vas taken (the Large Glass art vork
++ 1his object does, ot course,
exist and Man Pay remade
LEnigme dIsadore Ducasse (origi-
nal +,:o,.
+: 1he phrase lust ot the eye
is trom Karl Abrahams essay
Pestrictions and 1ranstormations
ot Scoptophilia in Psycho-
Neurotics, vith Pemarks on
Analogous Phenomena in lolk-
Psychology, in Selected Papers of
Karl Abraham, trans. Douglas
Bryan and Alix Strachey (Iondon:
Hogarth Press, +,::,,
p. +;o. Peaders ot Pliny vill note
the resemblance to the story ot
Parhassius and Zeuxis in Natural
History: A Selection (Book XXXV,
o, (Harmondsvorth: Penguin,
+,,+,, p. o.
+ Man Pay did not in gen-
eral make any distinctions
betveen his photographs ot
surrealist objects and those vhere
the photograph is itselt the
surrealist object. Indeed, Man Pay
vas touchy in intervievs about
making any distinctions betveen
his activities across dinerent
torms.
+ See Williams, Figures of
Desire, p. :.