Abstract
This paper provides a few inputs for us to build the theoretical conscience and the heuristics required to study symbolic images at large and photographs in particular. Based on the postulate by the Studies of the Imaginary about the existence of a common basis between the imaginary and intellectual work, we seek some philosophical consequences from valuing the one and the multiple on the systems of image and thought. We make a distinction between the approaches to the photograph as an iconic shaper and symbolic catalyst. By taking into account this difference that is reflected by that which we can didactically call levels of the imaginary, as well as the differences between verbal and visual language, we come to the conclusion that the symbolic hermeneutics of photographs requires its own methodological construction. One that gets to advance over Durand's mythology, but which construction may be even shut down by the fact that the symbol is not an attribute of the image but instead a condition for it to happen.
Keywords:
Imaginary; Photograph; Communication; Philosophy; Methodologies