The human soul : its movements, its lights, and the iconography of ...

STATEMENT OF ICONOGRAPHYsubject to discussion, as everyinterpretation,but in any case, the plate isimpressedin circumstances unusual to ordinaryphotography, and for a quite differentuse, than for which it was destined. Itshould not be impressed, and neverthelessit is.It was destined to reproduce the exteriorlight of an object, instantaneously, indaylight, or to retrace its form, the reversedprojections and shadows.In iconography, the plate receives, veryslowly, no longer by the solar ray, but byan electro-vital current (wind, breeze) orsimply by a direct emission, no longer,the exterior light of the object, but whatis called its internal light, its intimatesoul, which it records. To produce thisimage, the condensing apparatus, thelense is not necessary. Iconography isthen not governed by lawsof refractionand inflected foci ; it is a law peculiar tothis vital force, to our soul of life, ofdirectly graphing itself without undergoingtransposition by the fact of its passage from-> 33^