Fetish: a thing to which more respect or attention is given than normal or sensible: He makes a fetish of his work (4) or also an object or activity that is necessary for or adds to an individuals sexual pleasure (4)

Freud, in On Sexuality; three essays on the theory of sexuality and other works Vol. 7 described a fetish as an unusual object-choice by a person and said that generally they recognized the fact that it was abnormal but seldom felt that it was the symptom of an ailment accompanied by suffering. He continues by saying that usually, these people were quite satisfied with their fetish and even praised the way in which it eased their erotic life and that as a rule, fetishism makes its appearance during psychoanalysis only as a subsidiary finding.

When analyzed, the meaning and purpose of a fetish is always the same, it is a substitute for a phallus that s

Psychoanalysis can contribute a great deal to the understanding of photographs giving a more rounded view of a piece of work especially if the work has a sexual theme or a general talismanic or warding nature. Visual images are far more easily understood using all of ones mental facilities rather than just immediate sensory perception. Any knowledge, experience and fetishes that the observer has must be used in order to fully understand a photograph and Metz has explained that a persons viewpoint changes their perception of a piece of work.

Death is symbolic of castration i.e. a loss but, as mentioned before, because a photograph acts as a reminder, this loss acts also as a protection against loss.

To begin with, he describes the process whereby people assimilate a photograph on its silent rectangle of paper into their conscious and subconscious mind. An observer has an indefinite period that they are allowed to view the picture and during this time they must attempt to understand the photographs content, context, and its cultural significance.

Secondly, the death of a moment of time i.e. that we are no longer the person that was in the photograph when it was taken.

This is consistent with generally regarded notion that the use of psychoanylitic theory and fetishism have been very influential as to how photographic theorists look at pictures, especially when looking at pictures which construct women as objects for the male gaze and how the visual pleasures implicit in looking at such images are implicated in the exercise of power.

Metz arguments prove that photography has definite fetishistic overtones in the present cultural climate due to both its physical nature (it can be touched and held) eg. the familiar photographs that many people carry with them at all times are fetishes in the non sexual sense and the objectification of the subjects within the photograph which can range from remembrance of the dead to a celebration of sex and sexuality.

This understanding, however, is determined by the degree of social recognition that the observer has, subjects that he might find easily accessible include peoples private and family lives, (eg. as shown in a photograph album) as these themes are almost universal (and are the birthplace of Freudian fetish). Photographs can also be made less accessible for an ordinary person by presenting them in a gallery exhibition with a learned commentary, this makes them seem more complicated, placing them in a totally different context.

Metz then describes the usage of photographs

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Approximate Word count = 1717
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)