roland barthes reflections on photography

The punctum is usually a detail in the photograph. He says that there are two elements that could be considered when analising aphotograph: studium (the context that surrounds the photograph e.g., political context) and puctum (what gets one’s attention). In fact, Barthes explains how being photographed may change a person through making the person reflect about their different identities.īarthes realizes that certain photographs got his attention whereas other did not. The photograph is the reference (e.g., the landscape or the person who has been photographed).Ī photograph can be the object of doing (the photographer who takes the photograph), observing (the person who looks at the photograph) and undergoing (the person, object, landscape captured in the photograph). Barthes indicated that photography captures things that may happen only once (e.g., birthday party) and that a photograph cannot be classified because it cannot be separated from what it represents (the reference).

He argues that traditionally there are different classifications: empirical (professionals/amateur), rhetorical (landscapes, objects, portraits, nudes) or aesthetics (pictorialism vs. Barthes starts the book by questioning whether photography could exist. The exploration of the nature of photography was approached by Barthes in his book Camera Lucida (1981). For example, more feminist messages became accepted. As explained during the lecture, the fact that each photograph may convey different meanings was important because it meant that other messages were possible. In fact, Barthes indicates in his piece of writing how the viewer may be more important in the construction of the message, as they might be unaware of the previous experiences of the author. Barthes argues that it exists a constructivist approach where the message is created by both the author and the viewer. However, this idea was challenged in Barthes’ writing The dead of the author (1967).

The photographic process like any other art product (e.g., painting) was supposed to be unidirectional, that is, was supposed to have a single meaning based on what the artist aimed to communicate.

Roland barthes reflections on photography