Ryszard Horowitz’s Photo-Compositions: The Image as a Holistic Structure

Maciej T. KOCIUBA

Zakład Logiki i Kognitywistyki, Instytut Filozofii, Wydział Filozofii i Socjologii, Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej, pl. Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej 4, 20-031 Lublin, Poland , Poland

Abstract

The article comprises an interpretation of Ryszard Horowitz’s photographic works. The author puts forward the thesis that Horowitz’s dreamscapes embrace complex structures which generate organic entities. His photographs are usually composed of deliberately juxtaposed visual elements. However, the appeal of these works cannot be reduced to their visual aspect, but it results from the complex pictorial and semantic relations obtaining among their component parts. Throughout his interpretation of Horowitz’s images, the author uses his holistic method of interpretation which consists in demonstrating how a polyiconic (multielemental) composition becomes an organic entity. The hermeneutic of Horowitz’s artworks ultimately enables a reconstruction of the rational core of his output, as well as that of the system of central categories and meanings the artist applies.

translated by Dorota Chabrajska

Keywords:

Ryszard Horowitz, photography, photo-composition, allegory, symbol, image, pictorial cognition, visual cognition, holism