Pouczający paradoks fotografii bliźniąt. Diane Arbus i Tereza Vlčková

Abstract

In the beginning of the article the role of a “decisive moment” and Barthes’ punctum in photography is pointed out. Artistic pictures taken by Diane Arbus and Tereza Vlčková show how similarity and difference of twins are ambiguously seen by “normal” people. The interpretation of their works, however, stresses that the visible similarity, causing possible problems with individual identity, is essentially apparent, while the fear of a “strange” phenomenon of freaky “same people” reveals the problem of an uncertain, timid personal identity. An ambiguous attitude to identity and difference may be overcome by the aesthetic experience of a photographic work and its punctum, which is the foundation of artistic identity of photography and which opens the universal, philosophical reflection on the essence of identity itself.