Visual Thinking and Cognitive Capabilities of Photography

Based on the history of photography, in particular, the history of Russian artistic photography, the article reveals its cognitive potential in the context of visual thinking. The specifics of the cognitive possibilities of artistic pho-tography are shown. The cognitive use of photography in science and practice as a means of expanding a per-son’s physical capabilities and the cognitive capabilities of artistic photography are compared. There are differ-ences between clip art, “picture” thinking and visual, imaginative thinking, as well as artistic and postmodern photography. Clip-based thinking based on iconic signs is fragmentary, fragmented, mosaic-like, and in this sense reflects the situation of reality in the representation of ordinary consciousness: atomized, chaotic, arbi-trarily formed. Visual thinking associated with the use of signs and symbols is characterized by integrity, pre-supposes the ability to identify a stable, essential principle in the objects of reality. Based on the differences between visual and “picture”, clip-based thinking, artistic photography is considered in terms of its cognitive capabilities, on the basis of which a conclusion is drawn about the existential and metaphysical possibilities of visual artistic thinking. These are cognitive possibilities of self-knowledge and essential exploration of the world.