ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses photography, memory, and history and addresses the relationship between photographic images and the need to remember; it is based on the notion that seeing is a prelude to historical knowledge and that understanding the past relies on the ability to imagine. Photographs are the story-telling companions of time. They direct the gaze of the spectator to ponder. Reflecting on our own lives, we often refer to photographs whose presence conditions our recollection of people and events and keeps them alive. Photographs are also cultural products, and others have theorized the photograph in ways that reflect the role and function of photographs as a mode of communication in the cultural and political apparatus. Rhetorical analysis is yet another approach to examining photography. Photographs possess rhetorical dimensions that relate to informational and persuasive qualities of a visual narrative, ranging from emotional to intellectual appeals of representation.
