Jean Baudrillard and the Challenge of Photography

Abstract

In the discourses on photography, especially in the Anglo-American context, Jean Baudrillard has been regarded as the prophet of postmodern ‘hyperreality.’ This article argues for a different view of Baudrillard. By positioning his writings within historical, economic and social realities of the 1970s-1980s France, I argue that his legacy as a theorist and a practitioner of photography is best appraised with reference to his theory of simulacra and his lifelong preoccupation with objects — commodities, technological tools, artefacts, photographs. Considering Baudrillard’s theoretical appraisals of photography alongside his photographic practice, the article identifies a number of striking convergences between theory and practice, as well as important divergences, which are further clarified through a study of the photographic works of Baudrillard’s contemporaries, French artists Sophie Calle and the