A dictionary of Marshall McLuhan’s quotations

The photograph as an extension of the visual power has the strange property of being a form of statement without syntax. The woodcuts and engravings that preceded the photo were highly syntactical. So is the movie that succeeded the photograph. The syntax of the engraving was from the hand. The syntax of the movie is from the foot. The movie, physiologically, is the union of the eye and the foot.
“A Phantom City Phaked” (1964), pp 4-5
Year: 1964
Chapter: Photography
Compiled by William Kuhns
© 2026, The Estate of Marshall McLuhan