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Roland Barthes' Punctum |
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In Camera Lucida, Roland Barthes’ classic work on photography, discusses an element he calls the "punctum," the detail that pierces the frozen surface of the photograph to provoke an unexpected emotional response. The punctum, for Barthes, is a private experience, completely subjective. There is no science to it, it simply happens. Something reaches out and grabs you by the shirt or it does not. The punctum depends upon processes of mechanical reproduction for its existence; it is the misbehaving detail that challenges the photograph's dry facility. The punctum itself can never be the subject of the photograph by definition; it is redundant, excessive, and supplementary. The punctum sees Barthes at his most maddeningly complex; it is not a concept you can necessarily use as part of an efficient interpretive strategy.
The photographs that work for Barthes are comprised of two elements, the studium and the punctum. A first element is a set of ideas to which one gains access to the symbolic. This domain for Barthes opens up a cultural and political prospect that permits interpretation of photographs and the intentions of the photographer. This field generates a kind of general interest and moderate enthusiasm, which Barthes re
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Below are additional random excerpts from the paper...
Barthes refers to punctum as the element in a photograph that pricks or wounds the viewer. Punctum is not something that generally interests someone, such as a beautiful sunset or, most currently, a collapsing building, which might invoke a recollection of 9-11, thus a national identity. In locating punctum, Barthes wishes to locate only what he himself could see, not what others saw. Punctum was his way of forging individuality; it occurs when one least expects it. It is a small, overlooked detail. “The punctum, then, is a kind of subtle beyond – as if the image launched desire beyond what it permits us to see…”(C.L 59).
What Barthes finds or reads into the photograph of his mother as a child, is the truthful history of her life after that photo was taken. It contains the past and the future, what has been and what will be. In addition, this is how photography marks the passing of time. Moreover, it also points to death. Barthes’ mother is already dead by the time he finds the photograph. When he views it, he sees her past life and her death. Hence for him, photography involves is a kind of haunting, a return of the dead, whether or not the subject of the photo is already dead. It is in this sense that time formally becomes a second element of the punctum.
Barthes’ emphasis on the importance of the punctum plays in the observation of a photograph explains the individual aspect that each person will experience while reading the same photograph. Furthermore, Barthes incorporates the element of time into the definition of punctum to stress the significance of the photograph in regards to providing historical evidence, or the essence of photography – truly recognizing the value of time within the context of the photograph. The absence of punctum creates a mere liking of a photograph, rather than a loving or hating which a punctum would bring to a person.
A photograph can come across in many different ways to many people, based on culture, values, and experience. Barthes admitted that “most [photos] provoke only a general and, so to speak, polite interest: they have no punctum in them: they please or displease me without pricking me” (C.L 27). There are millions of advertisements or companies with logos that have either cre
Some topics in this essay:
Roland Barthes’,
Genreal Linguistics,
Lewis Payne,
Furthermore Barthes,
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essence photography,
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Approximate Word count = 1548
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)  |
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