What could be more familiar than photographic images and art? Yet, this very familiarity causes numerous misunderstandings and is a pretext for unjust criticism. The uncompromising study offered here by Jean-Marie Schaeffer aims to clear this fog. The photographic image has a complex status: on one hand, and above all, it is the imprint left on a sensitive surface by the object it represents; on the other hand, as an image, it maintains an analogical relationship with human vision. The interplay between imprint and analogy weaves intricate relationships. Hence, there are some real and false problems – for instance, the question of what constitutes "photographic objectivity." This also explains the multiplicity of photo uses and the diversity of communication strategies surrounding it. Photographic art is the art of all dangers. This is evidenced by the constant temptation to construct images according to pictorial models, saturating them with visual and cultural stereotypes. It is as if photography is afraid of itself and its specificity: a precarious and irreducible art, an art of trace, indifferent to any interpretative overkill, a secular art content with simply showing. With "The Precarious Image," the "Poetics" collection expands its scope to encompass all artistic practices.