The contemporary French thinker Jean Baudrillard was also a photographer, who published numerous discourses on photography. The present essay proposes to explore the relationship between his earlier theoretical writings and his discourses on photography. The main angle of approach is the theme of "seduction" as explored in Baudrillard's work. This essay will employ Baudrillard's analysis of the two-dimensionality of the trompe-l'oeil painting, and by indirect inference the problem of the world existing as a surface image and an illusion. By bringing together these separate theories, we can find connections between his ideas on photography and seduction.
Keywords
Jean Baudrillard, photography, seduction, trompe-l'oeil, Narcissus