Term punctum in relation to photography was first coined by Barthes in the 1977 after the death of his mother Henriette. At this time he began writing Camera Lucida, which is a simultaneously an inquiry into the nature and essence of photography and a eulogy to Henriette. Barthes has lived most of his life with her and two had a very strong bond. Following her death, Barthes sets on a quest of finding his mother again in the old photographs and attempted to explain a unique significance a picture of her as a child carried for him. After discovering a certain feeling a certain photograph provoked in him he struggled to find a single word that would adequately describe it. Latin word for puncture, is a feature in the image that conveys significance without invoking any …show more content…
Once punctum occurs we become fixated on that something that provokes us, a single detail of a photograph that holds our gaze without condescending to mere meaning or beauty.
Barthes gives us such example in the photograph of an well-dressed African-American family taken by James van der Zee in 1926. According to Barthes, the punctum in this photo is the strapped pumps on the feet of a woman in a photograph of these shoes whose style seems too young for the age of the woman wearing them. This "arouses great sympathy" in Barthes, "almost a kind of tenderness", though it later shifts, as the image "works" on the author, to her gold necklace. Necklace which reminds him of his unmarried aunt who lived a rather sad and dreary life. Once again he has been emotionally fixated by the tiny poignant detail. Here we see Barthes being influenced by what he already is familiar with, something personal and recognisable. Zee`s photograph which, by no means was a typical one for that time gives him a punctum, a fixation of something that he is already familiar with, a necklace similar to the one he already seen in his real
The portrait of the boy has a frontal vantage point with his body centered and balanced on at all angles. This shows the expression on the boys face and the size of the boys body, which is important to the title of the work. When looking at the photograph the eyes are immediately drawn to the boys face and grin.
Having such an image before our eyes, often we fail to recognize the message it is trying to display from a certain point of view. Through Clark’s statement, it is evident that a photograph holds a graphic message, which mirrors the representation of our way of thinking with the world sights, which therefore engages other
Although both Fragonard’s and David’s work convey different ideals through their style of painting, they are still able to use light in a very similar form. The viewer’s attention is directed on a specific point in the painting through the use of light. Both artists cast a spotlight on the figure or action in the painting that they want the viewer to especially notice. It is what each artist decides to focus on that makes his work is different from the other. A young woman on a swing who enjoys the pleasures of life is clearly where Fragonard wants to direct the viewer’s attention. However, David focuses attention on a male figure, specifically Socrates. How does the use of light help the viewer understand the ideals of each form of art? While Fragonard chooses to focus on a female and David chooses to focus on a male, the viewer now understands how Rococo can be a feminine form of art and Neo-Classicism the opposite. In addition, other stylistic elements like color and form depict how each art form differs from the other. By using all this visual evidence, we will later see how the concept of deciding...
According to Shearer West, a portrait is “a work of art that represents a unique individual”. West elaborates on the implications of this definition of a portrait, introducing the dilemma of the painter, who may strive to illustrate either or both the ideal figure, or a likeness of the sitter. Jean Germain Drouais’ resolution to such a dilemma can be observed in the painting, Madame de Pompadour at her Tambour Frame, as he struggles to portray both the femininity of the ideal woman in the 1760s, while conveying the more present, aged and unique characteristics of the lady that captured King Louis XV’s heart.
The purpose of this paper is to explain how photography became an accepted form of art, as this was accomplished by Gaspard-Felix Tournachon. This was accomplished based on continuous experimentation of techniques to develop photographs, and how he had set up his environments to emphasize the subject and it’s beauty. Though Gaspard was more interested in caricatures and journalism, he decided to apply photography as a rapid form to create caricatures (Janson, 2012) after a friend convinced him to consider the possibility. Gaspard’s work became very popular, as he focused his photographs mainly on people higher in society, as well as Paris’ beauty (Cadava, 2012). Gaspard continued his work as a caricature artist, as there are dated caricatures during his time as a portrait photographer.
Images help us make sense of our world and provide different perspectives on how we might view it. These variety of perspectives is certainly evident through the distinctive images that have been created in the play “Shoe Horn Sonata” by John Misto and the poem “The Hero” by Siegfried Sassoon. In “Shoe Horn Sonata” Misto uses unique/ distinctive images to commemorate the experiences of others and to show the audience the injustice,cruelty of the Japanese and the resilience and resourcefulness of the women Bridie and Sheila. Similarly in the poem “The Hero” Sassoon uses images effectively to help the audience recognise the fallen veteran “Jack” and to show the brutality and pointlessness of war.
A good example of imagery can be found at the end of the story in the last paragraph. For this part of imagery, the main character Jackson Jackson has received his grandmother’s regalia from the pawn shop employee without having to pay the total of $999 he originally had to pay. (Alexie) “I took my grandmother’s regalia and walked outside. I knew that solitary yellow bead was part of me. I knew I was that yellow bead in part. Outside, I wrapped myself in my grandmother’s regalia and breathed her in. I stepped off the sidewalk and into the intersection. Pedestrians stopped. Cars stopped. The city stopped. They all watched me dance with my grandmother. I was my grandmother, dancing.” This statement made at the end of the story indicates a strong sense of imagery that details Jackson’s emotions towards getting his grandmother’s regalia from the pawn shop. The yellow bead he mentions was his strongest symbol of feeling toward his grandmother, feeling as if he were a part of that yellow bead, in this case, his grandmother. Jackson describes in more detail of how he felt more like his grandmother after he wrapped the regalia around him. The pedestrians, city, everything around him was watching him feel like his grandmother, like some sort of flashback he could be
In Guy de Maupassant’s story, The Necklace, he utilizes situational irony in order to highlight the theme. He displays this irony in order to reveal several themes that can be observed in the story. One of the major themes in this short story is how appearances can be misleading.
Realism, in the 1850’s, rose as a reaction to the Romanticism which, through its works, elicited a strong emotional response from the observer by allowing the artist’s creativity and imagination become more important that a compliance to traditional rules and conventions of the preceding period. (Romanticism, 2014) In an attempt to escape the emotionality of the Romantics, the Realists depicted their subject matter truthfully, without artificial embellishments and concentrated on the everyday life. (Realism, 2014) It is important, however, to mention that the Realists didn’t necessary try to replicate the depicted subject with a photographic precision as did the Naturalists. General Realists tried to create an accurate and objective illustrations of the people’s routine, and, in their own way, critiqued the established order, both the social and the political.(Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, and Photography, 2014) This depiction of the ordinary and the mundane grew in popularity with the emergence of photography as the new source of visual artifacts spurred the artists’ desire to create representations that looked “real”. (Realism, 2014)
that the camera is not more than an eye. It does not think. Any connection with judging, choosing, arranging, including, excluding, and snapping has to be with the photographer.”
Edgar Degas had said, “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see,” this sentiment is critical to understanding Impressionism as an art movement and later as a literary one. Literary Impressionist authors adopted the techniques of the artists. Both artist and author use a layering to construct impressions of their subjects. Berthe Morisot’s painting, Woman at Her Toilette, in which the painting of her subject appears to be wearing jewelry, but closer examination of the work, reveals that she used the layering of the paint to give the painting texture which creates this impression. Like Morisot, Muriel Sparks also uses the layering of her words to create an impression of her subject, Miss Jean Brodie, in her novella, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. This layering contributes depth and complexity that is prevalent in the impressionistic style of art and literature. Jesse Metz, in the introduction of his book, Literary Impressionism and Modernist Aesthetics, speculates that if literature is considered an impression then it “makes surfaces show depths, make[s] fragments suggest wholes,” which also can be seen within the art style (1). Whereas the artist uses paint and brush to create an impressionistic painting, author Muriel Sparks uses the layering character perception to create the subject of her text.
The contrasts between depth and surface, figure and landscape, promiscuity and modesty, beauty and vulgarity all present themselves in de Kooning’s Woman and Bicycle. Although the figure is a seemingly normal woman out for an afternoon with her bike, she becomes so much more through the artist’s use of color, contrast, and composition. The exotic nature of woman presents itself in her direct stare and slick buxom breasts in spite of a nearly indiscernible figure. It is understood that, on the whole, de Kooning did not paint with a purpose in mind, but rather as an opportunity to create an experience, however, that does not go to say that there isn’t some meaning that can come of this work. Even Willem de Kooning once said that art is not everything that is in it, but what you can take out of it (Hess p.144).
When I saw Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring about five years ago at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., I felt something about the painting that I had never felt before when looking at artwork. I felt as if this girl, this young woman in the painting was real, hiding in the museum behind this canvas. She was in the flesh. Her skin was still dewy from three hundred-something years ago, the light across her face still glowing. She was in the round, her eyes followed mine, she was real. She was about to speak, she was in a moment of thought, she was in reflection. This girl was not crimson red or titanium white, she was flesh. Vermeer caught her, a butterfly in his hand. She was not just recorded on canvas, she was created on canvas. She was caught in a moment of stillness. Vermeer creates moments in his paintings. When viewing them, we step into a private, intimate setting, a story. Always, everything is quiet and calm. I realize now it is no wonder I had such a strong reaction to Vermeer the first time I saw him: he is a stillness seeker.
feeling for the observer. This effect of Renaissance realism of the painting tells a tale about the
The main focus of this essay is to explore the connections between the acts of obsession, the visual outcomes and the ideas behind it. The concepts and themes have been narrowed down into four groups for discussion. In the first group I examine two texts that deal with obsession as art, both texts include groups of artists working with obsession in their practice.