PHOTOGRAPHY AS A FORM OF STATEMENT AND MEANS OF FIXING PRESENCE IN A. PEREZ REVERTE’S BATALIST

Abstract

Modern literary criticism pays much attention to the theme of photography in fiction. R. Barth and his followers emphasize the active interpenetration of the two arts, which results in a play with imprint, blur, and image. Photography turns out to be a point of reference for reconstructing the past. The photographic image claims to be an archival document necessary for reconstructing the past, and the photograph claims to be completely objective, though limited by a subjective position. In the plot of A Perez Revert’s novel «The Battler» the camera, as well as photography itself, occupies a special place. After all, it is the camera that helps the photographer to recreate the chosen object of reality, to turn a moment into time frozen in history. For a photojournalist, a camera is not just a device for creating photo frames, but a component of his life, a mechanism that works in harmony with his body. The camera forms the inner world of the photographer, projecting the reality around him. During the Croatian war of the early 1990’s, it allowed the combatant to see what he saw through the prism of his own emotions and beliefs and recreate it in a specific photograph. A photograph is not only a documentary fact, but also a work of art, because it is a unique combination of dozens of random factors that together affect the perception of the photographer, coincide in one moment, are focused by the lens and reflected in it. This text is part of a discourse about the changing status of the document and the role of the photographer in assessing events, his ethical position, and recording presence. The one who publicly manifests his individuality and creative potential to make his voice heard, or to demonstrate images and attribute to himself a certain autonomy in relation to the world and its institutions, sooner or later becomes an artist.