Camera Lucida

When I first started reading Camera Lucida, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the way that Barthes analyzes photography so much. I thought it was a little overwhelming and wasn’t sure if I would be able to get into reading the book, and finish it. The first day I picked up the book, I read to page 21 (the end of chapter 8) and then decided it was time to put the book down. The next morning while still lying in bed my dad came upstairs, picked up the book and started flipping through the pages, looking at the pictures and quizzing me on what the book was about. It was then that I realized I had actually picked up more information from Barthes over analyzing of photography than I had ever thought I would. It especially made me reflect on the part in chapter 2 where he talked about how a photograph says “Look”, “See”. A photograph has its own effect, and says its own thing. Another thing Barthes said that really stuck with me was when he says “In this glum desert, suddenly a specific photograph reaches me; it animates me, and I animate it”. He goes on to say, “The photograph itself is in no way animated...but it animates me: this is what creates every adventure”. This part of the book, is what I think made me continue to read the next morning. I reflected a lot on what he said in that part as I fell asleep that night, and even as I woke up. It gave me the realization that this is something that I should be aiming to do with my photographs (something I would like to do) I would love for the photograph to animate people, for them to feel the adventure.
I thought the book had some low points between here and the end where Barthes starts talking about how he found the picture of his mother. How he went back through time, to find the earliest picture of his mother, and it was like losing her all over again, but at the opposite end of life. I enjoyed reading where he compares dreams to photographs. He imagines his mother the way he finds here in the very first photograph of her taken that he finds in the old photographs, and he knows this is the photograph that he thinks of when he sees it. I felt that we as readers really go to know Barthes through his thoughts on photography which he expressed in his book. I thought his choice of words, “stadium” and “punctum” were an interesting approach for words to use that described the different parts of the photograph that have an effect on the viewer. When I talked to my dad the next time about the book, I found myself using these terms and thinking that they were helpful in explain the book and photography to my father. I feel as though I gained a lot more from the book than I ever would have expected to. I enjoyed reading about how he felt about portraiture, and I felt that there was a lot of truth behind what he said about it. I was especially interested where he talks about capturing the essence of someone in their portrait. I’ve never really done a lot of portraiture, and every time I try doing something with portraiture again, I feel that I struggle more and more. Barthes says that you should try and get as close to their soul as you can, I thought about this a lot over the week and it made me decide to try and do some portraiture with my emulation project. A couple weeks ago, I talked with Julee about this project and she mentioned doing something with my grandma as a part of my project, and I was kind of scared off by this idea and was opposed to it. I didn’t want anything to do with people in my photographs, but after reading what Barthes said about portraiture I decided to give it a try. I figured my gram is someone I know and she might be someone I could test and see if I could learn from what Barthes had said.