Indeks, ikona i symbol. O stosunku fotografii, historii (czasu) i pamięci

The Author starts with a thesis that photography and modern historiography developed at the same time, and then tries to look for relationships between the two. He starts from analyzing a specificity of a photograph which — as a medium — not only represents the past, but can be an energizing impulse both in the presence and the future. By referring to the semiotic classification of Charles Sanders Peirce, the Author describes the importance of a photograph to historical research as an index, an icon and a symbol. This helps understand the way of using a collective resource of photographs and to define a status of digital photographs as a source. Finally, the Author tries to show the perspectives of visual history analysis and the role which might be played by images when forming and changing memory communities in the era of globalization and diversification.