Immediacy versus Hypermediacy, Straight versus Un-straight: Staged Photography as Remediation

Abstract

Bolter and Grusin understand the process of remediation as based on the two contradictory imperatives for immediacy and hypermediacy. The desire for immediacy is a desire for a transparent medium and a desire to deny the mediated character of technologies and media. The fascination with hypermediacy, in contrast, concerns a specific representational practice and a visual style that foregrounds the mediated character of media. In this paper I will rethink the desire for immediacy and the fascination for hypermediacy. I will argue that the medium of photography as such is not at all the embodiment of the desire of immediacy. Important photographic practices in the history of the photographic medium emphasize its hypermediacy in order to demonstrate the intentionality of the photographer.