Camera Lucida

Camera Lucida

Roland Barthes

How to define photography? 

• ·      Empirical – amateur or professional
• ·      Rhetorical – landscape, objects, nudes, portraits, etc
• ·      Aesthetic – realism or pastoralism

I would add

• ·      Process – digital, film, lens less

Barthes states that because of all of the variations photography becomes unclassifiable.  Currently there is an obsession with classification, mainly fueled by the digital versus film debate, but this is then overcomplicated by the added sub-cultures of SLR versus medium format, resolution versus bit depth, Nikon versus Canon, and so on.

“Photography always leads the corpus I need back to the body I see”.  Photography is a record of an event that can never be repeated, which Barthes says, is never transcended for the sake of something else.  Photography is not a plural but an individual – the photograph not photography.  The photograph can communicate or cause a reaction but it is still ‘ a photograph’.

Barthes initially states that the photograph is never distinguished from its referent, from what it represents.  But unlike other media this this is not necessarily true.  Many would state that a photograph is a signifier when a secondary action, such as reflection, is added.  So a Kevin Carters shot of the child and the vulture is no longer an image of a bird and child but is a statement about the state of South Africa at the time, is a statement on hopelessness, or is a statement on the callousness of the photographer.  So is a photograph what he terms as ‘laminated objects’?  Can the referent exist without the signifier, or would removing one destroy the other?

The signifier has traditionally been the emotional, or indeed subjective, response promoted in the viewer.  This could be like Kevin Carter’s shot outrage, or in someone like Lachapple envy or desire.  Currently there appears to be a new response developing, one that has always been present but is now more prevalent, the technical quality.  The image has become a signifier for the equipment that you use thus removing the emotional element from the photograph.

Because of all of these variables Barthes concludes that you cannot really classify photography.

Barthes identifies three practices within a photograph.

• ·      The operator – the photographer
• ·      The spectator – the viewer
• ·      The target – the subject of the photograph.

Each has their own perspective on the process, separate from the mechanical or chemical reactions in the physical process.

Excluding the incidents of being photograph without one’s knowledge, each photograph of a person involves a pose.  The pose determines how the target wishes to be interpreted, both interpretation and pose being determined by cultural and environmental factors.

He suggests that there are four ‘repertoires’ in portrait photography.

• ·      The one that I am
• ·      The one I want others to think I am
• ·      The one the photographer thinks I am
• ·      The one that the photographer makes use of to exhibit their art.

Barthes view of photography, as a non-photographer, excludes many of the additional factors involved in the dissemination of information about the target.  The fashion and lifestyle press add their own repertoire, the manipulated image.  This is not a new element; Cecil Beaton for example used seemingly unsubtle manipulations with paint and ink on his large prints.  Once reduced to a magazine page these broad strokes seemed life like.  Current digitally manipulated images continue this practice, as models features are smoother ad stretched to fit the current cultural expectations.  Is this a fifth repertoire, the one that the art director sees?

Studium and Punctum

A Latin term that does not directly relate to study but is used to represent the interest aroused by the subject of a photograph.  This can be the cultural content, the juxtaposition of elements to create a tension, or simply asking your self why in relation to the narrative presented to you.  The Punctum he classes as the surprise that leaps out of the photograph at you, it translates as sting, speck, little hole.

Many photographs exist without a punctum as they please you without creating more than a ‘polite’ interest.  The studium must be present for you to look at the photograph, studium relates to like, not love.  The punctum may not be a physical element within the image, but may be time.  The memories and emotions created when looking at an old photograph.

William Klien famously responded to Brathes inclusion, and interpretation, of two of his images by presenting what he regarded as him studium and punctum.  The important thing to remember is interpretation of images is an opinion not a fact.

Barthes, R. (1984) Camera Lucida. London: (Fontana).