Victor Burgin 在〈可見的城市〉（"Visible Cities"，2013）一文中提到，「暗箱」（camera obscura）的概念遠早於攝影技術的發明。他以17世紀的一幅版畫為例，說明暗箱原理如何在建築中自然呈現：當建築牆壁上的小孔將對面建築的倒影投射到內牆時，每座建築實際上都成為了接收影像的「暗箱」。從這個視角出發，攝影不應僅被視為一種技術，而是一種概念——它關乎光線如何轉化為影像、影像如何連結現實，以及人類如何透過視覺理解世界。

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攝影技術的演進——從手工繪製的透視畫法，到機械複製的攝影術，再到電子運算的數位影像——就像一條穿越時空的光線，從房間的暗箱投射到數位螢幕。影像（image）的範疇也涵蓋各種可能，從光學的精確到心理的投射，從工業的符號到時間的隱喻，影像早已超越物質的界限，滲透進我們對現實的每一層理解。

 

"Promptography"（指示攝影）一詞與"Photography"（攝影）形成對比，展現了影像生產方式的重大轉變。如果我們將攝影視為一種不斷演進的概念而非固定的技術，那麼人工智慧生成圖像所依賴的語言訓練與大數據分析，便開啟了一個全新的思考方向：當電腦透過演算法與數據庫「看見」世界時，它所理解與生成的影像，究竟映射了什麼樣的視覺現實？

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本文選取了攝影史中的八段關鍵引言，以 Midjourney 生成圖像，試圖勾勒攝影概念的演進軌跡：從 Louis Daguerre（1839）宣告攝影術的誕生，到 Oliver Wendell Holmes（1859）透過立體視鏡窺探世界的多維性與記憶的微妙連結。Kodak（1888）將原本複雜的攝影技術轉化為「按下快門即可」的大眾日常，而 André Bazin（1945）討論了影像中時間如何被封存。Henri Cartier-Bresson（1952）提出的「決定性瞬間」定義了攝影的時間性，Roland Barthes（1980）則透過「刺點」概念探索攝影的情感維度。Jeff Wall（1989）進一步思考攝影作為一種創作概念的可能性，而 Martin Lister（1995）則站在數位革命的門檻，預見了影像觀念的顛覆與重構。

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In his essay "Visible Cities" (2013), Victor Burgin points out that the concept of the "camera obscura" predates the invention of photographic technology. He uses a 17th-century engraving as an example to illustrate how the principles of the "camera obscura" are naturally manifested in architecture: when the inverted image of an opposite building is projected through the small hole of another building on its interior wall, every building actually becomes a "camera obscura" that receives images. From this perspective, photography should not be understood merely as a technical process but as a concept: it concerns how light transforms into images, how images are connected to reality, and how humans perceive the world through vision.

 

From hand-drawn perspective techniques to mechanically reproduced photography and, later, computer-generated imagery, the evolution of photographic technology resembles a ray of light traveling through time, from the room's camera obscura projected to the digital screen. The conceptual scope of the image also covers various possibilities, from optical precision to psychological projection, from industrial symbols to temporal metaphors. Images have long transcended material boundaries, penetrating every layer of our understanding of reality.

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In contrast to "photography", the term "promptography" foregrounds a crucial shift in how images are produced. If we consider photography as a continuously evolving concept rather than a fixed technique, then the language training and big data analytics that AI-generated images rely on open up a whole new direction for thought: when computers "see" the world through algorithms and databases, what kind of visual reality do they construct and project?

 

In this article, I select eight key quotations from the history of photography, using Midjourney-generated images to delineate the conceptual evolution of photography. Louis Daguerre (1839) announced the birth of photography; Oliver Wendell-Holmes (1859) explored the subtle connections between the world's multidimensionality and our memory through a stereoscope; Kodak (1888) transformed the originally complex photographic technology into a slogan of everyday routine: "You Press the Button, and we do the Rest.", while André Bazin (1945) examined how time is preserved in images. Henri Cartier-Bresson (1952) defined photography's temporality with his notion of the "decisive moment", and Roland Barthes (1980) introduced the concept of "punctum" to explore photography's emotional dimension. Jeff Wall (1989) further considered the potential of photography as a creative concept, while Martin Lister (1995) stood at the threshold of the digital revolution and foresaw the subversion and reconstruction of the concept of image.

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