ABSTRACT
By a mimetic photograph is meant the totally conventional, 'normal' use of photographs, as an 'illustrative' representation. In mimesis a photographic sign serves as a mimetic reproduction of the referent (the thing depicted or referred to), which is held to be 'reproduced' photographically. Within or outside surrealism such mimetic photographs are commonly used to 'reproduce' paintings, people or places where to all intents and purposes, the photograph remains invisible, ideologically 'transparent'. In semiotic terms, the production of meaning of a mimetic photograph is thoroughly iconic but only by masking its own presence. The prophotographic structure is valid so long as the content does not contaminate the form of the photograph itself, which is where an image would fall into the third category of 'enigmatic' signifier', not an enigmatic signified. In analogy with the 'enigmatic signitier' in psychoanalysis, the surreal image in surrealism offers a meaning (an unresolved contradiction) to the spectator while another message is nevertheless 'hidden' or 'designified'.
