Uploaded February 2022 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago

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This video is an overview of film scholar Tom Gunning's essay "What's the Point of an Index? Or, Faking Photographs," which responds to and critiques many major scholarly arguments about the waning trustworthiness of digital photographs in comparison to their analog counterparts.

For an extended explanation of Peirce's three categories of signs - icon, symbol, index - see this video: youtu.be/l84UQqrOtMg

For an extended explanation of Andre Bazin's essay "The Ontology of the Photographic Image," see this video: youtu.be/VYJlq-MwWTY