Introduction to image ontology

André Bazin's article "The Ontology of the Photographic Image" published in 1945 borrowed a philosophical term and proposed a core proposition about the nature of film: the unity of the image and the subject in objective reality. The image obtained by photography has natural attributes. It is generated from the body of the photographed object, and it is the prototype of the physical object. Image ontology believes that "all art is based on human participation, but in photography, we have the privilege of not allowing people to intervene." Therefore, the unique nature of film to reproduce the original appearance of things is the basis of film aesthetics.