This book provides the first in-depth theory of how we communicate using photographs. Despite the ubiquitous use of photographs as a universal language in digital social media, a systematic understanding of photographic communication has remained elusive. The author draws upon recent literature in philosophy of photography, picture theory, theories of pictorial reference, and scholars dedicated to the intricate relationship between images and speech acts. This book provides the philosophical foundations for an ontology of photographic social practices, elucidating how these practices are constituted by rules, thus enabling comprehension of photographic communication in conventional and non-conventional contexts. By offering several significant contributions, including a meticulous analysis of the difference between the pictorial content of an image and the speech act performed by its contextualized use, it helps us understand the various types of rules governing photographic communication, and proposes a taxonomy of photographic speech acts, among others. This unique perspective makes the book important reading for our times and of great interest to scholars across various disciplines, including philosophy, photography, communication studies, media studies, and visual arts.
Guilherme Ghisoni da Silva is a PhD Associated Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Federal University of Goiás and coordinator of the Photography Philosophy Research Laboratory. He is a CNPq Research Productivity Fellow - Level 2. He conducted postdoctoral research in philosophy of photography as a visiting faculty at the University of British Columbia (Canada, 2019-2020) and obtained his PhD in Philosophy from the Federal University of São Carlos (2011), with a study period at the Université Pierre-Mendès-France - Grenoble II, France (2010). He was the recipient of the ANPOF 2006-2007 Awards for Best Philosophy Dissertation in Brazil (“The Status of Philosophical Discourse in Wittgenstein's Tractatus” (2006)), from the National Association of Graduate Studies in Philosophy, and the Academic Highlight of the Year 2010 from the Federal University of Paraná. He also works as a visual artist, participating in national and international exhibitions. He has worked in various books in partnership with renowned photographers such as Guy Veloso, Betina Samaia, and Claudio Edinger (GHISONI, 2015, 218a, 217b, 2019). He is the editorial coordinator of the book by photographer Claudio Edinger, titled History of Authorial Photography and Modern Painting (2019), and co-editor of the anthology Confluindo Tradições Estéticas (2016). Additionally, he is the author of several academic articles and book chapters on philosophy of language, time, memory, and photography.
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Book Title: The Philosophical Foundations of Photography as a Means of Communication
Authors: Guilherme Ghisoni da Silva
Series Title: Synthese Library
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-02649-1
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-032-02648-4Published: 09 November 2025
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-032-02651-4Due: 23 November 2026
eBook ISBN: 978-3-032-02649-1Published: 07 November 2025
Series ISSN: 0166-6991
Series E-ISSN: 2542-8292
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XX, 194
Number of Illustrations: 3 b/w illustrations
Topics: Philosophy of Science, Analytic Philosophy, Philosophy of Language, Aesthetics
