The Relationship between Image and Reality in Kendall Walton's Transparency Theory (A Case Study of Reality in Photographs of Nasir al-Mulk Mosque)

Photography creates a complex relationship between viewer and reality. The audience's understanding, type of engagement, and sensory experience depend on various factors. A photograph functions as a window onto the real world, establishing a direct connection with reality beyond the image itself. Kendall Walton presents a theory of photography as "transparency," concluding that photographs resemble artificial eyes through which we can see. What we perceive this way depends on the actual world. Walton describes the relationship between photograph and depicted scene as natural dependence...