Photographs Beyond Concepts: Access to Actions and Sensations

One of the most important things people see is what other people do. In photographs of actions, people see what other people have done. This analysis focuses on photographs of motor actions or interactions taken in naturally occurring situations. I suggest that such photographs represent special meanings, which I call action-related meanings. I examined the hypothesis that viewers understand these meanings by establishing motor and somatosensory neural representations of pictured actions, which would also be activated if viewers would actually perform these actions. This correspondence provides a special access to bodily meanings of pictured actions. Based on findings on vision and reactions to photographs from multiple research areas, I developed a novel framework that describes the neural basis of understanding action-related meanings of photographs; how these meanings differ from conceptual meanings; the characteristics of pictured actions, which influence the strength of motor and somatosensory responses; the processes making these responses accessible to conscious experiencing; and the potential emotional, social, and cultural value of photographs picturing actions. The proposed framework contains a number of predictions, which can be tested by future empirical investigations. The analysis aims to contribute to a better understanding of the meanings represented by photographs of actions.