EN
The aim of this article is to reveal different conceptions of photography, with special stress on one of the basic problems of photography - the relation between photo images and reality. The awareness of this discussion and different points of view seam to be important for researches interested in the field of visual sociology and sociology of photography. This article consist of two main parts. The first part presents those conceptions of photography which explore the idea of ontological identity between photographical images and pre-photographical situations. Works of a few classical authors are described at this point: W. Benjamin, A. Bazin, R. Barthes, S. Sontag. Contrary to these conceptions, we may find different ways of analyzing images as a subjects involved in ideology. The second part is devoted to these issues. The authors like J. Tagg, V. Burgin, Jo Spence examine images as a political tool, which is always used by different groups in their particular interests. J. Tagg uses the philosophical conceptions of Foucault (power/knowledge) and Althusser (ideology). The last author presented in this overview of modern photographical theories is V. Flusser, with his idea of philosophy of photography understood as a philosophy of freedom.