Definition - General Aspects

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For a long time, historians were considered to work with texts as their actual sources. For centuries historians were primarily men of letters who took their methodological apparatus from the study of ancient languages. Images in the form of drawings and paintings were reproduced in history books as mere illustrations in order to render publications more attractive with a higher illustrative value. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the flood of images had begun to rise dramatically as a result of developments in photography, print media, film and television. The arrival of a new ‘iconographical age’ became apparent around the end of the century. This did not mean that images were automatically understood and taken seriously as historical sources. A naïve contemplation takes an image to be a direct and exact reproduction of reality. A scholarly contemplation and interpretation of an image, however, requires methodological training.

In the following, the term ‘images’ comprises – based on their method of production – all types of paintings, portrayals in artistic craftwork (depictions in woven carpets, mosaics, gravestones, etc., graphical products (maps, reconstruction drawings, posters, stamps, caricatures, etc.) and photography, as well as ‘still pictures’ (scene photographs) from film and television; not, however, moving pictures.
A different categorisation evolves, however, if we approach the matter thematically, differentiating images of people, depicting persons or groups of persons, from natural or urban landscapes, portrayals of everyday life, or images of specific events.
Images can also be categorised temporally. Some images evolve directly from a situation that may be more or less current. Other images provide future generations with a view of the past.
Finally, images can be differentiated in terms of the function – private or public – ascribed to them.

It is not the aesthetic quality of images that is the primary interest of historians; rather, they seek images that allow for statements regarding a past epoch, especially pertaining to:

• the factual and material culture of the given era;
• the symbolism and metaphorical language of the time;
• the zeitgeist and interpretations of the contemporary age;
• societal values;
• images of self and other;
• memory cultures of the given era;
• historical aspects of society, everyday life and mentalities;
• political ambitions and their ideological justification.
   

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