The contextuality of photography as an iconic sign: a perspective on the theory of intermediality and studies of iconicity

The question of the status of photography as a sign has been, and continues to be, one of the central issues in the critical discourse on photography. This semiotic uncertainty, which has been a source of considerable debate, is partly explained by Charles Sanders Peirce’s semiotic notion of the dynamic sign, which emphasises that homogeneous signs do not exist: the "identity" of a sign is largely determined by its function. The photo-essay "Berlinales" by Rolandas Rastauskas and Remigijus Treigis, as well as Judita Vaičiūnaitė’s collection of memoirs "The Mabre Hotel", which is illustrated with photographs, provide an opportunity to look at photography through the prism of Lars Ellström’s theory of the intermediality (or intermodality), that develops the Peirceian notion of signs. A reading that actualises various intermodal relationships helps reveal the multifaceted nature of the analysed photographs – to show how the same photograph can become an icon-image, an icon-diagram, and an icon-metaphor – and to highlight the performativity of the "being" of the sign in general.

Photo and facsimile from the personal archive of Ula Vaičiūnaitė

Photo by Remigijus Treigys

Aušra Kundrotaitė is a researcher of intermediality, urban literature and autobiography.

She is a PhD student at the A. J. Greimas Centre for Semiotics and Literary Theory, Vilnius University.She has published the academic articles "Autobiographical pact as an architectural palimpsest: Judita Vaičiūnaitė’s The Mabre Hotel", and "Spatiality of the City in Literature: the Possibilities and Limits of the Semiotic Approach". To take a break from academic jargon, she occasionally writes essays for the biweekly "Šiaurės Atėnai” ("Madrid during the pandemic: an attempt at rhythmic analysis", "Mapping a personal utopia", etc.).