Paloma Atencia-Linares

ISSN: 0213-3563
IMAGINATION, PERCEPTION AND MEMORY. MAKING

(SOME) SENSE OF WALTON’S VIEW ON PHOTOGRAPHS
AND DEPICTION
Imaginación, Percepción y Memoria. Dando Sentido a las Ideas

de Walton sobre Fotografía y Representación Pictórica
Paloma Atencia-Linares
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Recibido: 5 de agosto de 2017

Aceptado: 7 de septiembre de 2017
ABSTRACT
Walton has controversially claimed that all pictures (including photo-

graphs) are fiction and that in seeing a photograph one literally –although in-
directly– sees the photographed object. Philosophers have found these claims
implausible and I agree with them. However, I try to give some plausibil-
ity to Walton’s view. I try to clarify (but not defend) Walton’s view of de-
piction by contrasting pictorial experience with perceptual experience more
generally. I focus on the case of photographs and I claim that, although see-
ing objects in photographs is not a case of literally perceiving objects, photo-
graphs share an important feature with perceptual experience: the content of
photographs, like the content of pictorial experience, is particular in character.
This explains their peculiar phenomenology. Photographs, however, are more
similar to memory experiences than to perceptual experiences.
Palabras clave: Walton, transparency, particular content, perception, ima-

gination, depiction, photography.
© Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca / CC BY-NC-ND Azafea. Rev. filos. 19, 2017, pp. 251-268
paloma atencia-linares
252 imagination, perception and memory. making (some) sense
of walton’s view on photographs and depiction
RESUMEN
Walton sostiene que todas las representaciones pictóricas (incluidas las fo-
tografías) son ficciones y que, al ver una fotografía uno literalmente –aunque
indirectamente– ve el objeto fotografiado. Los filósofos han considerado estas
afirmaciones implausibles y yo estoy de acuerdo con ellos. No obstante, inten-
taré dar una lectura razonable de estas ideas waltonianas. Intentaré clarificar
(que no defender) la visión waltoniana de la representación pictórica y para
ello contrastaré la experiencia pictórica con la experiencia perceptual en gene-
ral. Me centraré en el caso concreto de la fotografía y sostendré que, a pesar
de que ver objetos en una fotografía no constituye un ejemplo de percepción
literal de un objeto, las fotografías comparten un rasgo fundamental con la
experiencia perceptual: el contenido de las fotografías, como el de la experien-
cia pictórica, es un contenido particular. Esto explica su fenomenología. Las
fotografías, sin embargo, son más cercanas a las experiencias de la memoria
que la experiencia perceptual.
Palabras clave: Walton, transparencia, contenido particular, percepción,

imaginación, represntación, fotografía.
1. Introduction
As is well known, Kendall Walton claims that photographs ground per-

ceptual experiences of the objects they are of; he maintains that photographs
are transparent, so we literally –but indirectly– see through them. However,
he also holds, photographs, like other pictorial representations, are fiction,
because in seeing them we imagine ourselves seeing directly the objects they
are of. Walton’s view on photographs, as his view on depiction more gene-
rally, has been widely rejected. It is not the case, critics have claimed, that
photographs literally ground perceptual experiences of their objects1 (. Fur-
thermore, it is not the case that imagination explains depiction (Lopes 1996,
Hopkins 1998, Currie 2002, Wollheim 2003, Stock 2008, Matravers 2010);
and it is certainly implausible that all pictures, let alone photographs, are
fiction (Lopes 1996, Currie 1995, 2002).
My aim in this paper is not to defend Walton’s view – I basically agree
with his critics in the three points mentioned: (1) clearly not all pictures are
fiction; (2) imagination does not explain depiction and (3) photographs don’t
support perceptual experiences of the objects they are of. However, I think
that, by looking at the possible motivations behind Walton’s view, we can
1. Currie 1995, Carroll 1996, Cohen and Meskin 2004, Nanay 2004.
imagination, perception and memory. making (some) sense 253
extract some grain of truth. I suggest that behind Walton’s view there is an
underlying contrast between perceptual experiences and pictorial experien-
ces, on the one hand, and a similarity between perceptual experiences and
photographic (pictorial) experiences, on the other, that not only can help us
make sense of some of Walton’s obscure and confusing claims, but also may
point us in the right direction to understand an important aspect of photo-
graphic (pictorial) experiences.
My strategy will be the following: firstly, I will review Walton’s view
on depiction and I will claim that it is not correct to attribute to Walton
the view that all pictures are fiction in the ordinary sense, although this is a
misunderstanding partly caused by his ambiguous use of the term “fiction”.
Secondly, I will suggest that Walton’s views on depiction are better unders-
tood when we contrast pictorial experience with perceptual experiences on
the one hand, and compare them with imaginative experiences on the other.
And finally, I will contend that although Walton is wrong in saying that
photographs ground perceptual experiences of the objects they are of, they
nevertheless share something important with perceptual experiences; both
photographic experiences and perceptual experiences have particular con-
tent. This, I suggest, explains the peculiar phenomenology of photographs
and, to that extent, Walton’s intuition was on the right track. However, des-
pite this similarity with perception, I will claim, photographs should not be
modelled on perceptual experiences but on memory experiences.
2. Walton on Depiction. Fiction, Imagination and Perception
Kendall Walton maintains that all pictures –moving and still, including
photographs– are fiction. This controversial statement is a direct consequen-
ce of two claims that lie at the core of his theory of representation. On the
one hand, for Walton something qualifies as fiction if it has the function of
prescribing imaginings in certain games of make-believe. No matter how mi-
nor or peripheral the mandate to imagine in a work is, if it has that function,
then it is fiction (WF). On the other hand, Walton contends that understan-
ding pictorial representation –or understanding what pictures depict– always
demands an imaginative experience (WD). In particular, Walton contends
that seeing-in, or the foundational twofold experience characteristic of the
way we perceive pictures as pictures, is best explained as being partially ima-
ginative. The idea is that, in perceiving the picture’s surface, one imagines
of one’s seeing that it is one’s seeing the depicted object face-to-face. So,
when I see Edward Hopper’s Self-Portrait, I imagine of my act of looking
at the marks on the canvas that it is my act of looking at Edward Hopper in

the flesh. It is therefore fictional of my seeing Hopper’s picture that it is my
seeing Hopper face-to-face. Hopper’s picture functions as a prop in a rich
or vivid visual game of make-believe. This is also applicable to photographs.
Although for Walton, photographs are transparent and so we can literally
see the photographed objects through them, this seeing is indirect seeing – as
when we see through a telescope or a microscope; so in (literally but indi-
rectly) seeing, say, a soldier in Robert Capa’s photograph, I imagine myself
seeing the soldier directly or face-to-face2. All pictures, then, are props in
visual games of make believe and this is precisely what distinguishes them
from descriptions or linguistic representations. Yet, in the light of WF, this
also has the consequence that all depictive works are fictional by definition.
Read at face value, and with the ordinary distinction between fiction and
nonfiction in mind, this claim is straightforwardly implausible. Clearly there
are not only nonfictional pictures in general but there certainly are nonfic-
tional photographs and films. To say the contrary would be to deny a long-
standing tradition of documentary photography and film. This alone should
lead us to suspect that Walton’s notion of fiction may be an idiosyncratic one;
after all, he cannot be denying such blatant evidence. In fact, and criticisms
of his view notwithstanding, Walton does not do so. He admits that there
are some pictures that aim to inform, instruct, or illustrate, but he claims
that this “serious” –nonfictional– use of pictures is parasitic on their use as
make-believe3. From this line of reasoning it seems to follow that, for Wal-
ton, there are a set of pictorial works whose categorization will be something
like fictional-fictions while others would be nonfictional-fictions. Walton’s
notion of fiction, we may think, is broader than the ordinary one, since it
covers both fictional and nonfictional pictures (in the ordinary sense4). If
this is so, he would not be accounting for what it is that distinguishes both
categories, and that is tantamount to saying that Walton does not account for
our ordinary distinction between fictional and nonfictional pictorial works.
But of course, as I suggested before, that may have not been part of his plan.
Be this as it may, Walton’s ambiguity has led many to misunderstand his
claims, and many theorists have tried to block Walton’s misleading conclu-
sion that all pictures are fiction by denying that an imaginative engagement
explains depiction – given that most critics accept that imagination is indeed
the mark of fiction. Now, although I think that it is not legitimate to attribute
2. Walton 1984; Walton 1990; Walton 2008.

3. Walton 1990, 85.
4. Friend 2008.
to Walton the claim that all pictures are fiction in the ordinary sense, there
are independent reasons to agree with critics in that depiction is not ade-
quately explained by appeal to an imaginative experience. I will not discuss
these reasons here – I will take for granted that they succeed; what I want
to do instead is explore what could be the motivations behind a view, such
as Walton’s, that claims that pictures are fictions and that depiction should
be explained in terms of imaginings.5 These motivations have rarely been
discussed and I think they shed light not only on Walton’s own view but on
the character of pictorial experience more generally. I will develop these in
what follows.
2.1. Pictorial and Perceptual Experience
The fact that Walton frequently contrasts his view of pictorial represen-
tation with linguistic representation very often obscures many of the claims
he makes, and the motivations that lie behind his view on pictures. But I
think that Walton’s proposal that pictures are fiction –and that imagination
is involved in pictorial experience– gains more plausibility –or at least beco-
mes more intelligible– if we compare pictorial experience with perceptual
experience more generally.
We can start with some basic or naïve observations. Experiencing pictures
or seeing objects in pictures is a peculiar phenomenon. In some important
respects, pictorial experience is a perceptual experience: we certainly use our
sight and perceptual capacities to see the physical object that is in front of
us (i.e. the canvas, the frame, the marks, etc.) and to identify in the patter-
ned surface of the picture a recognisable object (i.e. a man, three women,
a sunny landscape, etc.) However, the phenomenology of seeing an object
face-to-face and that of seeing an object in a picture differ substantially: in
the latter case, unlike in the former, we experience the object as being absent
from our immediate environment, although somehow present in experien-
ce. This could lead one to think that, although seeing an object in a picture
is not equivalent to seeing an object in the flesh, it is nevertheless as if we
were seeing such object. Moreover, given that it is not, contra Gombrich, a
case of illusory experience, it might be tempting to think of that “as if” as
5. I do not suggest that these motivations are Walton’s own or that the proposal I
will develop in what follows is one that Walton himself had in mind when he put forward
his view or one which he would endorse. The ideas I will develop are intended to make
sense to a view, such as Walton, which may seem, in principle, counterintuitive.
suggesting a sort of imaginative experience. After all, in (visually) imagining

something, one perceives the object “before the mind, yet absent from one’s
surroundings”; that is precisely why imagination is sometimes conceived of
as thought-in-absence. Pictorial experience, following this reasoning, would
be something like as if, make-believe (or fictional) seeing or, in some ways
similar to an imaginative experience.
It seems plausible to think that this contrast between pictorial and per-
ceptual experience–or between fictional and ordinary or real seeing–could
be behind Walton’s claims. This assumption, at least, would help to make
sense of, and give some plausibility to, two rather obscure claims Walton
makes about pictures: that (real) objects are inessential to pictures6 and that
the use of pictures in make-believe is prior to their possession of semantic
content7. Here is why. Perceptual experience, one could think, always puts
us in direct contact with real existing objects (unless, of course, one is ha-
llucinating; but in that case, according to some theories, it would not be a
case of perception).8 Moreover, the possibility of doing so seems essential to
our concept of perception (even when hallucinations are possible).9 In fact,
the intuitive conception of perception tells us that the content of perceptual
experience is partly determined by the objects and events the experience
“picks out”, namely, the objects that are present or given to the subject in
experience. For instance, when I have a visual experience of an apple that
is in front of me, the nature of my experience is partly determined by the
object–the apple–and the way it actually is.10 This is why the content of per-
ceptual experiences is frequently conceived of as being object involving; that
is, one could not have been in that token perceptual state, had that apple not
been present. By contrast, one could think, pictorial experience does not
guarantee a connection with reality. When we see objects in pictures, those
objects are not really present to us; moreover, they might have not even
been present in the moment the artist made the picture. Pictures always
depict things and events as if they existed, and thereby, as if they could be
6. Walton 1990, 122.

7. Walton 1990, 351.
8. Hallucination, according to disjunctivist theories, is not a case of perception.
See, for instance (Hinton 1973; Snowdon 1980; McDowell 1986; Martin 2002).
9. Not all theories of perception agree with the claim that perceptual experience
put us in direct contact with objects. The sense-datum theory and some intentionalists
deny that this is so. See (Crane 2005).
10. Not all theorists of perception think that (real) objects determine the content of
perceptual experiences see (McGinn 1982; Davies 1992). However, it seems part of our
concept of perception that they do so.
seen;11 but this is so regardless of whether they exist or not. In fact, it seems
possible for someone to have a pictorial experience of a non-existent object,
which is subjectively indistinguishable from a pictorial experience of a real
mind-independent object. Now if this is so, one could further claim, the es-
sence of the pictorial experience cannot depend on real objects, since essen-
tially the same kind of experience can occur in the absence of (real) objects–12
I could have two indistinguishable pictures of, say, a dog, even if the dogs
in one of the pictures dogs never existed. Moreover, it does seem possible to
conceive of pictorial representation without the possibility of depicting real
objects. Objects, then–following this line of thought–are inessential to pic-
tures. And, likewise, real objects cannot determine the (semantic) content
of pictorial experience, because, again, one could have the same experience
in the absence of real objects. The content of pictures, therefore, cannot be
determined by the objects and events we see-in them – that seeing is make-
believe seeing: we cannot literally “pick out” the objects in experience since
they are not really present to us as they are in “ordinary” perception; mo-
reover, these objects might not even exist! In the case of pictorial experience
then, the argument seems to go, what determines the (semantic) content are
not the (real) objects that we see depicted in the picture, but the objects or
events that we make-believe we see in them.
Support for this interpretation, and another reason to think that picto-
rial experience calls for an imaginative engagement, could be the kind of de-
monstrative remarks people make when looking at depictions. For example,
when Stephen utters “That is a ship”, while pointing toward a ship-depic-
tion, his utterance seems to be appropriate13. However, one could claim that
we cannot take his claim literally, for it is not literally true that that–which
we point–is a ship: Stephen is really demonstrating the object that is in front
of him, namely the picture, not a real ship. However, Stephen’s claim seems
appropriate because, since he is make-believe seeing a ship, it is also make-
believe that he is demonstrating a ship.14
11. Depicting something as non-existent would require to depict something that

cannot be seen, but that does not seem possible. See (Hopkins 1998, 28–30; Stock
2008, 370).
12. Notice that this argument mirrors the “argument from hallucination” that is
normally put forward to challenge the intuitive fact that when we have a perceptual ex-
perience we see real mind-independent objects and that real objects actually determine
the content of perceptual experiences (Crane 2011).
13. Walton 1990, 217.
14. This view of the use of demonstratives with pictures has been challenged by
Dominic Lopes (Lopes 2010).
One way to summarise and interpret the spirit behind these claims could
be this. Pictorial experience, in Walton’s view, is make-believe, as if, or fic-
tional seeing because, unlike real seeing, it does not guarantee a connection
with reality. In pictorial experience, it is make-believe that things are present
to us in experience, while they are really absent from our surroundings; we
perceive copies of objects (or props) and not the objects themselves, but
we make-believe that we see the real things15. Similarly, in pictorial experien-
ce, it is make-believe that some objects exist and can be seen, while they rea-
lly do not exist and cannot be seen. In fact, nothing in the nature of pictorial
experience prevents that all the things we see-in pictures could actually be
non-existent: (real) objects are inessential to pictures. Moreover, the pheno-
menology of pictorial experience would be the same regardless of whether
the depicted object exists or not.
Surely none of this makes Walton’s view of depiction, as an explanation of
seeing-in, more defensible. However, the contrast with perceptual experien-
ces at least helps us see what could be the motivations for putting forward
what is otherwise a rather unintuitive view. Moreover, I think it captures
some grain of truth about the nature of pictorial experiences in general.
2.2. An alternative account: Kathleen Stock’s
As a matter of fact, Kathleen Stock has suggested a view regarding the

thoughts that (figurative) pictures generate that seems in some ways similar to
this alternative reading of Walton’s view. Although Stock does not talk about
the nature of experiences, according to her, pictures typically prompt propo-
sitional thoughts that are non-committal with respect to the existence of the
objects that the viewers see in them. Moreover, she says that these thoughts
should be conceived of as imaginings. In fact she claims, imagining –unders-
tood in this way- is the “default position when it comes to seeing-in16”. Briefly
stated, Stock’s position is the following: when we grasp the content of a (figu-
rative) picture we generate a propositional thought with the existential content
“there is an object O with appearance x” –or as she puts it “an O with appea-
rance x, exists.”17 This thought is typically, although not always, an unasserted
15. The exception, for Walton, would be the case of photographs. But in this case
the contact with objects would be indirect and, as in the case of pictures more generally,
there is no guarantee that all that we see depicted in the photograph are real objects.
16. Stock 2008, 373.
17. Even if the picture depicts a non-existent object or situation, Stock claims, I
think correctly, that pictures present them as existing, that is why we can see them in the
pictures. (Stock 2008, 370)
proposition (a state that represents things as being a certain way which is not
a belief). And the proposition is unasserted because typically, pictures on their
own do not put viewers in a position to believe that the content displayed by
pictures is actually the case or exists in the real world as depicted.18 Unasserted
thoughts of this kind, she further claims, should be construed as imaginings.
This, Stock contends, is the default position for pictures. However, there are
certain pictures that do indeed put the viewer in a position to assert their con-
tents; that is, to believe that it is in fact the case that “an object with appearance
x, exists.” Examples of this kind of pictures, she claims, are trompe l’oeil pictu-
res, documentary photographs and some hand –made pictures– provided that,
in the latter two cases, the viewer’s knowledge of its circumstances of produc-
tion, gives her reason to think it is an “accurate guide to the visual appearance
of what is depicted19.” In sum, for Stock, there are two types of pictures: those
that prompt the viewer to (merely) imagine –as opposed to assert or believe–
that the depicted content exists as it appears, and others that prompt the viewer
to believe so. The majority of pictures, however, fall into the former category.
Prompting imaginative thoughts in the way she describes it is, then, the default
position for pictures in general.
2.3. Similarities and Differences between Stock’s view and the proposed
reading of Walton’s
Stock’s view, I think, is similar in spirit to the reading of Walton’s view

I proposed before for the following reason: I suggested that the motivation
behind Walton’s view –– the view that having a pictorial experience is diffe-
rent from having a perceptual experience (and perhaps similar to having an
imaginative experience) – could be that pictorial experiences (like imagina-
tive experiences and) unlike perceptual experiences are non-committal with
respect to the existence of their objects, and pictorial experiences need not
pick out any particular object. Now, although Stock does not talk about ex-
periences, or the contents thereof, she claims that pictures typically give rise
to mental states – propositional thoughts – that are equally non-committal
with respect to the existence of their objects.
18. The viewer can have independent reasons to believe that such content is indeed
the case; in fact, she can believe that “O with appearance x, actually exists” based on
other sources. But that does not change the status of the thought derived from the pic-
ture; that thought remains unasserted because the picture on its own grounds does not
motivate the viewer to believe that such content is the case.
19. Stock 2008, 373.
And, as in the reading of Walton I proposed, Stock’s view could be traced

back to a contrast between pictorial and ordinary perceptual experiences –
although she does not say so explicitly. If I see, say, an apple in front of me
that looks red and round, it is likely that my perceptual experience alone puts
me in a position to think that the apple actually exists and that it is round and
red as it seems to me in experience. Of course, I can be hallucinating, but the
phenomenology of my experience presents it as if it were the case that there
is in fact a round and red apple right in front of me; moreover, my experien-
ce presents it as if that apple and not any other with that look existed. Also,
unless I have reason to doubt my experience, I would naturally come to
believe that things are as they appear to me in experience.20 The case of pic-
tures, one may think, is different, and this may be what Stock is suggesting.
The experience of pictures alone, and independently of other background
information, does not normally prompt the viewer to believe that what she
sees actually exists. The picture presents an object or situation as being thus
and so, and so the viewer represents it in that way in her thought; but her
experience alone does not put her in a position to think that an object as the
one she sees in the picture is actually out there in the world in the way it is
depicted. The experience of the picture alone does not motivate the viewer
to assert the existence of what is depicted, that is why the viewer just imagi-
nes that it exists.21 This way of understanding Stock’s claims also fits nicely
with the case of the trompe l’oeil picture that Stock mentions as an example
of pictures that do ground assertive thought. Since the experience of a tromp
l’oeil may seem to the viewer qualitatively identical to a perceptual experien-
ce with similar content, it makes sense to claim that, the experience of trompe
l’oeil pictures leads her to form a belief.
Now there is an important difference between Stock’s view and Walton’s.
Whereas –according to my reading of Walton– his view on pictorial expe-
rience in general is similar in spirit to Stock’s, Walton’s view on photographs
in particular is different from Stock’s. For Walton, photographic pictorial
experiences are a special kind of pictorial experience which is closer –or ac-
tually equivalent– to perceptual experiences. For Stock, by contrast, photo-
20. This claim is independent of whether perceptual experience actually justifies

beliefs. This other claim (that perceptual experience justifies beliefs) might be more con-
troversial see (Davidson 1986).
21. As Stock presents it, the claim does not seem to be that pictures do not provide
sufficient grounds to justify the belief that an object O with appearance x actually exists.
Rather, it seems to be that pictures do not lead naturally to form beliefs, independently
of whether they are justified or not. In other words, Stock’s claim does not seem to be
normative.
graphic experiences are on the same level as other pictorial representations

regarding the thoughts they generate. Here, I disagree with Stock and, as it
will become clearer later on, I partly agree with Walton. But let me state my
disagreement with Stock first.
According to Stock, photographs (in general) are like other pictures in
that they trigger unasserted thoughts or imaginings by default; she admits
that certain photographs, like documentary photographs are indeed “asserti-
ve pictures” –or pictures that motivate the viewers to assert that their content
actually exists; however, this is so only if viewers have knowledge about the
history of production of the picture and this gives them reason to think it
is an “accurate guide to the visual appearance of what is depicted.” So one
way to put this idea is to say that perceiving photographs does not typically
prompt the viewer to think that it is the case that a thing such as what she
sees in the photograph actually exists unless she has background knowledge
about the circumstances of production of the photograph, and this gives her
reason to think the picture has been reliably produced.
I think this is not so in the case of photographs –documentary or otherwi-
se. It may be correct to say that viewers should not so easily believe the con-
tent of some photographs, given that they can be faked or doctored; but this
different from saying that photographs as a matter of fact do not typically
put the viewer in a position to think that what she sees actually exists. I take
it that what Stock is suggesting is the latter –if it were a normative rather
than a descriptive claim, it would not make much sense to say that trompe
l’oeils fall in the category of “asserted pictures.” But, if this is so, I do not
think Stock’s claim is correct. It seems to me that photographs, in virtue of
their peculiar phenomenology, do indeed prompt viewers to think by default
that what they see actually exists. That this is so, I think, explains why pho-
tographs are very good at misleading people and, in all likelihood, also why
theorists have claimed that photographs lead us to identify the objects (of the
world) they are of22. Moreover, it does not seem to be the case that in order
to undergo the peculiar experience that photographs afford the viewer needs
to have any background knowledge about the circumstances of production
of the photograph. Of course, it may well be that if the viewer has reason
to suspect that the circumstances of production of the photograph are not
reliable, she would then not come to think that what she sees is actually the
case. But this suggests something different from what Stock is claiming. It
suggests that photographs typically generate “asserted thoughts” –as Stock
calls them– unless one has reason to think otherwise, and not the opposite,
22. Savedoff 2008.
as Stock seems to be suggesting. This, again, is compatible with the view

that we should not always trust our experience of photographs because they
are frequently misleading. But one should not confuse the claim that beliefs
prompted by photographs may not be justified by default –this, I think, is an
open question –with the claim that the default reaction of viewers when they
see photographs is to think that what they see in them actually exists.23 Simi-
larly, the peculiar phenomenology of photographs, I think, naturally –and
normally– puts us in a position to think that what we see actually exists. In
fact, our experience of photographs seems to put us in a position not only to
make the general existential claim that there is some object that looks a certain
way but also, the singular claim that that object is thus and so. In this respect,
I think, photographs –or photographic experiences– are more similar to the
case of perceptual experiences.
This aspect, I think, is better captured by Walton’s view on photographs,
so let me go back to his view.
3. Photographs, perception and memory
Photographs are for Walton a special kind of pictures, and thereby support
a special kind of (pictorial) experience. In trying to account for their peculiar
phenomenology, he introduced the idea that photographs actually ground per-
ceptual experiences of the objects they are of. Photographs, according to Wal-
ton, are transparent: when I see my grandfather in the photograph, I literally
–although indirectly– see my grandfather. Now, as I said before, this view has
been widely criticised. Theorists have claimed that photographs fail to instan-
tiate some necessary conditions for seeing. Carroll24 and Currie25 maintain that
in order to see an object, it is necessary that one’s visual experience grounds a
non-inferential belief about the object’s location in egocentric space, and pho-
tographs cannot ground such belief. Similarly Cohen and Meskin (2004) su-
ggest that photographic experiences, unlike perceptual experiences, fail to co-
vary with respect to changes and movements in the egocentric location of the
depicted object: “as I move around the world with the photograph, the egocen-
tric location of the depictum changes, but the photographic image does not26”.
23. Compare with the following case: many theorists claim that beliefs grounded
in testimony are not justified by default, however our natural tendency is to believe by
default what others tell us, unless we have reason to think otherwise.
24. Carroll 1996.
25. Currie 1995.
26. Cohen and Meskin 2004, p.201.
Finally, but in a similar spirit, Bence Nanay claimed that photographs, unlike
perceptual experiences, do not support sensorimotor counterfactuals: “what is
necessary for seeing is that there is at least one way for me to move such that, if
I were to move this way, my view of the perceived object would change conti-
nuously as I move27.”
I think all these criticisms are sound and I do not think Walton is correct
in claiming that photographs literally ground perceptual experiences of the
objects and situations they are of. However, I do think that photographic
pictorial experiences share with perceptual experiences something important
that accounts for the peculiar phenomenology of both experiences. Photo-
graphs, and the experiences thereof, like perceptual experiences are particular
or singular in character: the content of both experiences is not merely quali-
tative or existential but object-involving; the object or situation they are of
is itself a constituent of the experience. So when I look at the photograph
of my grandfather, as when I perceive my grandfather, I am aware of my
grandfather and not merely that there exists or there is a person of a certain
sort. I do not have the experience of seeing merely an image of some man or
other who matches certain look or the qualitative properties displayed by the
image; my experience is not merely an experience of likeness; my experience
picks out a particular object – in this case, my grandfather. This is not only
the case with familiar people or objects; if I open the newspaper and see a
photograph of a man whom I have never met before, I assume that the image
presents me with a particular man, that man whoever he happens to be. So
in the same way that one could not be having that token perceptual expe-
rience in the absence of the particular object it is of, one could not have the
same photographic experience in the absence of the particular object it is of.
Moreover, in the same way that, according to some theories of perception,
one could not be in a perceptual experience type in the absence of objects, one
could not have a photographic experience in the absence of objects.
Notice, however, that this implies not only that (real) mind-independent
objects are essential for the production of photographs but also that these
objects are constituents of their contents and the experiences thereof. To
say that the production of photographs always presupposes the existence
of an object, which the photograph is causally and counterfactually related
to, does not thereby imply that the content of photographs or the experien-
ces thereof is necessarily singular. Surely, the latter presupposes the former,
but the fact that a certain intentional state or representation has been caused
by an object does not entail that the content of that state or representation
27. Nanay 2010, p. 468.
is thereby singular – not even if the content preserves visual similarity. A

causal connection is compatible with purely general or existential content.
I cannot develop this here in detail, but maybe two examples would suffice.
(1) Katie’s desire to buy a Chanel little black jacket may have been caused
by seeing Jackie’s little black jacket (moreover, she might not be having such
desire if she hadn’t seen Jackie’s little black jacket), but the content of her de-
sire is not necessarily Jackie’s particular little black jacket, but any little black
jacket looking exactly like Jackie’s that can be found at a Chanel store. (2) A
rubber duck is produced in a factory as a result of an automatic process that
uses moulds that are shaped like ducks using a duck maquette. The resulting
rubber duck may have been caused and look exactly like the mould and the
maquette, but it does not represent in any relevant way the particular duck-
shaped maquette, it represents a generic duck.
It is true that Walton tries to justify his claim that photographs are trans-
parent by appealing to causation and the preservation of visual similarities
and, as critics have correctly pointed out, these are neither necessary nor
sufficient conditions for something to ground a perceptual experience.
However, I think that even if Walton’s explanation is incorrect, his claim
that photographs ground perceptual experiences suggests something else
apart from the causal explanation. If photographs were really transparent,
then they would have, as perceptual experiences do, particular content; and,
as I said before, I think this is true of photographs as well as of perceptual
experiences. So when I experience a photograph of a given object, as when I
have a perceptual experience of that object, my experience puts me in a posi-
tion not only to make the general existential claim that there is some woman
that looks a certain way but also, the singular claim that that woman is thus
and so. It is that object/person I have in mind – and not merely a qualitative
profile of it that could be satisfied by various objects with the same look.
Now, of course, in photographic experiences, unlike in perceptual expe-
riences – and this is where Walton’s view goes astray – the particulars are
not present in our surroundings. But this does not mean that we cannot still
be in cognitive or experiential contact with particular objects. Think of the
case of episodic memories. When I recall some previous experience I had at
some point in my life, I bring to my mind a particular event or object that
is not present anymore in my immediate environment. However, I am still
in direct experiential contact with it. Moreover, the content of my episodic
memory, as the content of the perceptual experience from which it derived,
is particular in character. That is, when I have an episodic memory of a pre-
vious experience I had, the content of my memory is not merely existential
content, rather, it presents me with particular situations or objects. As it has
been claimed, episodic memories are retained aquaintance (Martin 2001),

they preserve or inherit the particularity of the original perceptual experien-
ce not merely their qualitative character.
I suggest that we can tell a similar story in the case of photographs. There
are many good reasons to reject the idea that we can literally see through
photographs. But it makes sense to claim that the moment when the camera
is in front of the object, the moment where the photograph was first taken,
that event can indeed be assimilated to what could have been a perceptual ex-
perience. Certainly, it cannot be literally a perceptual experience because the
camera is not the kind of thing that can undergo conscious experiential sta-
tes. But the camera and the photosensitive material (the film) are in a similar
relation to the object that the subject of a perceptual experience would be. If
the camera were, say, a sophisticated robot with consciousness (imagine that
this could be possible), it would arguably undergo a perceptual-like episode
of the object in front of it.
So rather than support perceptual experiences of the objects they depict,
I suggest that photographs preserve the content (or part of the content) of a
perceptual-like event. Hence, in the same way as memories not only preserve
the qualitative aspect of the scenes, since their phenomenological content
also preserves their particular character28, photographs not only preserve the
likeness of the scenes and objects, they also preserve the particularity of the
original perception-like episodes. In this sense, I suggest, instead of claiming
that photographs ground perceptual experiences of the objects they are of, it
may be more accurate to say that photographs, like episodic memories, pre-
serve the particular content of past perceptual-like episodes. In this way, in
having a photographic pictorial experience we are in direct cognitive contact
with particulars, even though they are not present in our surroundings. Si-
milarly, in the same way that episodic memories fail to co-vary with respect
to changes and movements in the egocentric location of the depicted object,
photographs and the experiences thereof fail to co-vary with changes and
movements in the egocentric location of the depicted object as well.
If this is sound, this could be a way to make more sense to Walton’s
intuitions. On the one hand, instead of saying that photographs are trans-
parent and we literally see through them, we can say that they literally
put us in direct cognitive contact with particulars; and, on the other hand,
instead of saying that photographs ground indirect seeing, we can say that
they are images that preserve a particular content that is not present in our
surroundings.
28. Evans 1982.
4. Photographic content and depictive content
Now, to say that photographs and the experiences thereof, like memories
or perceptual experiences have particular content does not entail that photo-
graphs can only represent the particular objects that constitute their content. A
Photograph of a particular object o1 –which is constitutive of the photographic
content and the experience thereof– can also depict another object o2 as well,
either by stipulation or by visually reminding us of –or making it somehow vi-
sible. A photograph of Charles Chaplin, for instance, may be used to represent
Charlot, by stipulation– by adding, say, a proper name as its title. Similarly,
a photograph of a pipe –where the particular pipe is the constitutive element
of the content– can depict a saxophone by making it somehow naturally visi-
ble. In this case, although the photographic content and the experience thereof
would be picking out a particular pipe, we would not be interpreting them
correctly if we only saw a pipe with holes in the photograph.
Likewise, to say that photographs and the experiences thereof have parti-
cular content does not entail that photographs can just represent particulars
and not, for instance, general types. Even if photographic content and the ex-
periences thereof are always particular, photographs can be used to represent
something general, as when a photograph of a particular telephone is used in
a catalogue to represent all the telephones of that type, or a photograph of a
particular dog is used in an encyclopaedia to represent how dogs look. The
content of the photograph and the ensuing experience will still be particular,
it will still pick out only one object, but in certain contexts the use it is given
may just put emphasis on what that particular has in common with other
things of its kind, namely, its visual aspect.
This, I think, is partly why Walton claims that even though photographs
are transparent, they are also fiction or representational in his sense. In as
much as photographs have particular content, they put us in cognitive or
experiential contact with particular objects, however, in as much as they are
pictorial representations more generally, the objects that are present in our
experience are absent from our environment. And, what they (primarily) re-
present, need not be determined by the objects they are of, or the objects that
are constitutive of their content and the experiences thereof. Clearly, in the
case of photographs, since our experience of them always includes particular
real objects, they always represent them in some way –and the experience of
photographs always put us in contact with those objects– but this may not be
the primary object of representation; what determines what the picture ulti-
mately aims to represent is not limited –not even in the case of photographs–
to the real objects that are a constitutive part of their content.
5. Bibliography
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spr2011/entries/perception-problem/.
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totelian Society 66 (1992), pp. 21–45.
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ISSN: 0213-3563

IMAGINATION, PERCEPTION AND MEMORY. MAKING

Imaginación, Percepción y Memoria. Dando Sentido a las Ideas

Recibido: 5 de agosto de 2017

Walton has controversially claimed that all pictures (including photo-

Palabras clave: Walton, transparency, particular content, perception, ima-

Palabras clave: Walton, transparencia, contenido particular, percepción,

As is well known, Kendall Walton claims that photographs ground per-

2. Walton on Depiction. Fiction, Imagination and Perception

at the marks on the canvas that it is my act of looking at Edward Hopper in

2. Walton 1984; Walton 1990; Walton 2008.

2.1. Pictorial and Perceptual Experience

suggesting a sort of imaginative experience. After all, in (visually) imagining

6. Walton 1990, 122.

11. Depicting something as non-existent would require to depict something that

2.2. An alternative account: Kathleen Stock’s

As a matter of fact, Kathleen Stock has suggested a view regarding the

Stock’s view, I think, is similar in spirit to the reading of Walton’s view

And, as in the reading of Walton I proposed, Stock’s view could be traced

20. This claim is independent of whether perceptual experience actually justifies

graphic experiences are on the same level as other pictorial representations

22. Savedoff 2008.

as Stock seems to be suggesting. This, again, is compatible with the view

3. Photographs, perception and memory

27. Nanay 2010, p. 468.

is thereby singular – not even if the content preserves visual similarity. A

been claimed, episodic memories are retained aquaintance (Martin 2001),

28. Evans 1982.

4. Photographic content and depictive content

Carroll, N., Theorizing the Moving Image, Cambridge University Press,1996.

—, “Transparency and Sensorimotor Contingencies: Do We See Through Photogra-

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