The Unconscious of Photography

ABSTRACT What makes some photographs electrify and move us? According to the author, the camera remains in the service of a mental apparatus which looks for the possibility of expressing its contents, both conscious and unconscious—which are all kinds of human needs, desires, dreams and thoughts. The author directs her thoughts in the area of unconscious intersubjectivity, referring most of all to the Freudian theory of unconscious receptivity and unconscious communication, as well as Winnicott's concept of the mirror role of mother and play. Attention is drawn to the uniqueness of the photographic transition of space, in which a special place is occupied by light, which is not only a type of paint, but also a unique partner of fun, thanks to which the form, shape and depth of photography is created. The essay itself is a transitional space between various psychoanalytic narrations and various narrations of photographs in which the paintings of the Polish photographer Edward Hartwig have a special place.