Visuality and its influence on social cognition: philosophicaland methodological explanation

Many aspects of discussion about thevisuality can be realized clearly if we address to photography. The photography is traditionally understoodas a picture based on technical reproduction. A photo is an image of experienced moment, socialreality and its evidence. If the image reproduces the form of the objective reality the content of whichbrings to live by a subjective act (choice, perception, construction, presentation), the attention will bedrawn to the fact "how this visual representation makes a breakthrough in social cognition?". As anobject of cultural and philosophical analysis the photography shows its essence with different intensity.All researches agree with it. The photography could be transparent at one moment and absolutely impermeableat another one. Often the philosophy of visual, the ontology of photography is somewherein the middle between iconographic interpretation of the material and abstract speculations that try tocatch the essence of a subject. Reflections on the photography run to extremes, they start from everydaytalks and end with highly sacral meanings. According to some scholars, the essence, nature ofphotography can be described only with mutually exclusive characteristics: continuity - break, ossification- eluding, "studium - punctum", intention to avoid death - embodied death. The photography asa statement about "modernity" is important not only as a method as social reality construction but as acrucial complex of epistemological issues. Contemporary philosophical studies of visuality give distinctunderstanding about such basic ideas as: photography as a medium of consumption ideology,photography and everyday culture optics, photography of body in the framework of ontology approach.The methodology of our research based on phenomenological approach to nature of vision,visuality, photography, photography and reality, it contains such principles as:1. Understanding the photography as art of image creation which is able to convey the atmosphereof passed moment; as image which lost the uniqueness because of technical reproduction.2.Constructivist idea which presuppose not givenmeaning which not exists before the act of representation,but constructed during the presentation. Representation is not a reflection; this is an activeprocess of selection, structuring and formation, the process of sense obtaining.3. The principle of social phenomenology: social dimension integrated into the process of photography,thus, it always shows myself to Other in accordance with my understanding of Other and hisexpectations.4. The discourse of trust to photography messages about singular which makes social cognitiondifferent, more complex, catching variety of social reality.

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