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Roland barthes camera lucida essay
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After Reading Camera Lucida written by Roland Barthes, I was both confused and interested by his ideas. Though I did not understand much of the book, I was able to take a couple of his ideas and really think about how I see photos. In the future, I intend to use these ideas when I look at photos. One of his ideas that I was able to understand is the way he looks at pictures. The other one is his second definition of punctum. The first of the two ideas that interested me the most was the way Barthes looked at photos. He did not say that he liked a photo because it had his favorite animal or color. He looked deeper into the photo. He looked to see what had caught his eye the most about a photo he enjoyed. He called the catching of his eye the …show more content…
Throughout the book, he described certain photos that I thought were interesting, but he did not enjoy them. An example of a photo that he didn’t enjoy was the photo of the two nuns and three helmeted soldiers, which was photographed by Koen Wessing in 1979. The main reason that it didn’t appeal to him was that it didn’t have much of a, “duality” (Barthes 23) to it. Then there were photos that had caught his eye. An example of an image he enjoyed and had his prick was a photo of an African American family; photographed by James Van Der Zee in 1926. The family is not what the punctum was. The punctum for him was the woman standing in the photography. What touched him was, “…the belt worn low by the sister (or daughter) … whose arms are crossed behind her back like a school girl, and above all her strapped pumps…” (Barthes 43). Barthes states that the reason this is his punctum is because it invokes a sense of sympathy. This idea to look closer at a photograph or even a painting seems to inspire me to go back and look at my favorite pictures and paintings and try and find the exact reason as to why I like it. I know I will not be able to always try to find my punctum in every photo or painting I enjoy, …show more content…
Before reading this book, I have looked at paintings and photos of horses and just adored them. I realize now that my punctum at the time was the fact there was a horse in the image as the main focus. I looked at two of my favorites of the group of those images again to see if I can find exactly why I enjoyed it. One image I looked at was a photo of Star Like Freckles, who is a sorrel colored stallion (Harrell). When I looked at this photo again I see the stadium is the horse. Barthes defines stadium as, “…[a] very wide field of unconcerned desire, of various interest, of inconsequential taste: I like / I don’t like” (Barthes 27). My punctum for the stallion is his eye. I am drawn right to his eye; it invokes a calming sensation. This calming sensation also happens when I look a horse in the eyes directly; their eyes look wise, calm, and calculating as if they know what I feel. My second picture is a picture of two paint horses touching heads (Horses Head Hug). The punctum for me I now realize is the white markings of the horses combined. Though the markings are large, it is the fact that the markings appear to flow from one horse to the other
The very first line of the text, “I like the lady horse best,” comes off to the reader as being sort of childlike, almost as though the speaker is trying to make a point which anyone could make or come to on their own. It only makes
Larson’s use of imagery causes the reader to picture the beautiful landscape of the fairgrounds before the fair becomes, which might make the reader wish they were apart of this scenery. Larson emphasizes people will see things they “have never seen before”. Like a “broad body of water extending into the horizon” (55) , making the reader feel as if
Many of these artists' works contain subtle hints to the author's opinion on the subject. By analyzing their central compositional effects, the viewer can obtain a greater appreciation and understanding for the art.
P had painted and they were put in chronological order. The earlier paintings looked very real and detailed and then the paintings towards the end of the wall were more abstract and less concrete. This showed how Dr. P’s disorder began to form and worsen over the years because the paintings at the end consisted of just lines and splashes of paint. It became completely “nonsense” as Sacks called it. As Dr. P was able to see things as a whole and view every thing properly, his paintings were more realisitc but over time, they became less detailed which meant that Dr. P did not have the keen visual capability as he once did. This quote is meaningful to me because when I read it, it stood out most to me. It is also meaningful because it talks about how the wall is an exhibit for neurology and not for entertainment or art which is saddening since it only proves the worsening condition of Dr. P. I feel sorrowful because just as how Dr. P loves to play the piano, but he cannot anymore, he cannot paint with such detail anymore either. Slowly, Dr. P is losing the capability to do the things he loves and that is just upsetting. It just makes me feel more thankful for what I have and how I am able to do the things that I love to do. This book definitely raised
The Horse is represented in full profile as to show off it’s perfect proportions; it is forcefully modeled so as to give its perfect anatomy and it moves with regulated step of the riding school so as to give demonstration of perfect rhythm. The fact that a beautiful setter is running by the side of the horse completes the picture of the Christian man as known to the Late Middle Ages – the man who armed with faith and accompanied by religious zeal, symbolized by the faithful hound goes on his way along the narrow path of earthly life menaced by Death and the Devil.
..., the broader feel of the scene. He wants us to take in the entirety of the painting but have a moment to catch the individual scenes within it, like the couple dancing, the man in the corner rolling his cigar, or the women in the front talking to the man. We do get places where our eyes can rest, but in general your eye takes in the swirl of modern life and pleasure.
Some people may have the same or similar interpretation but as a whole group of people, it is different. The artist whom took painted or drew the piece most likely had a different perspective than the audience. Every moment is different from the present or past. When an artist is creating their artwork, their interpretation can be different than their views a few years ago. Capturing the picture at a certain point in time can be powerful because it shows what the feelings, interpretations, emotions that were expressed at that time. These emotions translate to what the artist chooses to put in their piece, which can be very powerful. In this short essay, “Every Portrait Tells a Lie” by Debra Brehmer, she says “The portrait, in the choices the artist makes, alludes to the fact that who we are involved selection, interpretation, and chance.” (386) Brehmer makes an excellent point that the artist has the control to choose what goes into their piece. The artist can choose to include what they want into their piece, like a person, a plant, and etcetera. In the book The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, the artist, Basil Howard claims that another character, Dorian Gray, is his muse. Basil paints a portrait of Dorian and this indicates how much power Basil has over the portrait. Basil has the power to choose what goes into the painting and how Basil wants to paint Dorian. Taking or painting a photo shows how much power the artist has because of their interpretation when taking the photo and their decision of what goes into the photo. The choice is completely up to the artist, which makes taking photos such a powerful
I will be discussing artwork using the Barthes Rhetoric of Image. I will discuss how it uses linguistic message, non-coded iconic, coded iconic, and idiolect. The image I am using is “American Gothic” by Grant Wood on page 538. I hope this painting shows the reflection of hope in the people despite the Depression.
One of the literary techniques most prominently featured throughout the passage would be that of imagery. The author takes great care to interweave sentences comparing the traits
I made many inferences while reading the piece. The first inference I composed was when the story talked about riding a “dark horse” and said that the St. Maurice was a workhorse. The inference is that they are not actually horses the characters are talking about, but water. In the story, the character talks about...
This book is a note written by Roland Barthes to record the dialectical way he thought about the eidos(form, essence, type, species) of Photographs. Roland Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, linguist in his lifetime, but surprisingly he was not a photographer. As Barthes had a belief that art works consists with signs and structures, he had investigated semiotics and structuralism. However, through Camera Lucida, he realized the limitation of structuralism and the impression to analyze Photography with only semiotics and structuralism. Barthes concludes with talking about unclassifiable aspects of Photography. I could sense the direction Barthes wanted to go through the first chapter ‘Specialty of the Photograph’. He tried to define something by phenomenology
A picture is more than just a piece of time captured within a light-sensitive emulsion, it is an experience one has whose story is told through an enchanting image. I photograph the world in the ways I see it. Every curious angle, vibrant color, and abnormal subject makes me think, and want to spark someone else’s thought process. The photographs in this work were not chosen by me, but by the reactions each image received when looked at. If a photo was merely glanced at or given a casual compliment, then I didn’t feel it was strong enough a work, but if one was to stop somebody, and be studied in curiosity, or question, then the picture was right to be chosen.
The photograph allows the viewer to transport back in time and actually see the chaos that took place during the partition. This claim is well supported by the context of the image. The photograph targets a general audience and evokes pity as it highlights the corpses.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce, exemplifies the model of art it proposes as it also offers the reader on how to read that very art. Following the main character, Stephen Dedalus, through life, Joyce uses Stephen’s immediate perception to convey how an artist views the world. The reader witnesses Stephen encountering everyday aspects of life as art—the words of a language lesson as poetry or the colors of a rose as beautiful. Through Stephen’s voyage and words, Joyce introduces the theory that “beauty” as a label for an object is not born from the actual physical object itself, but rather lies within the process one goes through when encountering the object. Joyce’s theory is also experienced by the reader as he or she encounters Stephen’s perceptions as well as the beauty of the poetic language and vivid description within Joyce’s narrative. The rhythmic patterns and stylistic sentences create a multitude of authorial voices that blend at various points in the novel involving Joyce, Stephen, and the reader.