The synthesis of socio-cultural and technical-technological causality of realism in photography

The article presents the analysis of realistic images in photography as a concept and phenomenon. The author considers realism as a method that allows creating recognition of the surrounding world in photographic images. Reality is understood as reality, which is technically possible to record with photographic equipment. Much attention is paid to the development of photographic technology and its influence on the idea of realism in photography. The point of view is given, according to which the realism of the photographic image is conditioned by the liberal-democratic progress of society: the emergence of freedom of movement, mass tourism industry, leisure, hobbies, the appearance of affordable photographic equipment. Realism in the article is described in the categories of the literal presentation of reality, as photographic naturalism, tied to the optical perfection of the image. The development of amateur photography is interpreted in close connection with scientific and technological progress in the photo department, where design solutions are aimed at improving the optical performance of the image, but not at the possibility of artistic interpretation of the image. The mass amateur photographer and the modern user of digital equipment are considered in the article as conductors of a strictly limited model of understanding the realism of the image. This model is replete with figurative cliches and technical cliches, implemented not so much by the «photographer» himself, as by a computer program and its «ideas» about reality and realism.