Between Memory and Present Continuous: Photography Signs in Jordan Peele's Get Out (2017)

This article is a reflection on the uses of photography represented in the film Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017) that revive the past and develop the present of the characters. To do this, we analyze the photographic objects and acts, its temporal dimension and its social uses, its narrative and symbolic function, in the cinematographic discourse. In the film, the testimonial function of photography remains in digital photography, while enabling new practices, by the introduction of cell phone systems and Internet. Photography becomes in instant messages, autobiographical or not, driven by social interaction in the present continuous of virtual social networks. These photographic signs produce connections and tensions between past and present; have a symbolic dimension on the gaze as an object of desire to be snatched away, and on the changes in the production, diffusion and reception of the photographic medium.