In the opinion of Stefania Bril, Vilém Flusser’s attempt to categorize photography according to a number of concepts—as both Roland Barthes and Susan Sontag had done before him, articulating “post-historical” thinking in the process—repudiates the submissiveness of an entire society where information is privileged over objects. It is essential to become aware of that situation in order to oppose the alienation it imposes, an alienation due to which the photographer, imprisoned by his camera, acts like “a public employee,” always reproducing the same things. A struggle against “the cultural, aesthetic, and political criteria at the center of the camera’s project” must be waged. Critics must also grasp the importance of that struggle, since they are the ones charged with the task of discovering and communicating the image without deferring to the interpretations imposed by channels of distribution. Bril maintains that awareness is the best way to avoid “the triumph of any apparatus in a dehumanized society.”

In her review of Vilém Flusser’s book Filosofia da Caixa Preta, Stefania Bril summarizes Flusser’s theory on the basis of lessons useful to producers of images, photography critics, and other agents involved in the production and dissemination of photographic images.

Stefania Bril, who was born in Poland, moved to Brazil in the early fifties. One of the most eminent photography critics in the country, she has written texts for publications in Brazil and abroad. She wrote for the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo and for Íris—the journal in which, with Bril’s support, Czech-born philosopher Vilém Flusserpublished a series of thirteen articles. Indeed, before the publication of this book, Filosofia da Caixa Preta [Philosophy of the Black Box], those articles were the platform from which Flusser communicated his ideas.

[For other texts on photography published in Íris, see in the ICAA digital archive by Harumi Yamagishi “Foto conceitual” (doc. no. 1110872); by T. J. Farkas “Fotografia - caminhos diversos” (doc. no. 1110873); by João Koranyi “Fotografia abstrata? (Conclusão)” (doc. no.1110874) and  “A missão cultural da fotografía” (doc. no. 1110871); by Vilém Flusser “O futuro e a cultura da imagen” (doc. no. 1110898) and “O instrumento do fotógrafo ou o fotógrafo-instrumento?” (doc. no. 1110899); by Eduardo Llorente “Juventude e cinema” (doc. no. 1110875); and by Luis Humberto “Uma fotografia criativa e seus impedimentos” (doc. no. 1110876)].