Roland Barthes “Camera Lucida”

Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida: Notes on Photography is a deeply personal exploration of the nature of photography as a medium. This book, the last published during Barthes’ lifetime, investigates the uniqueness of photographic experience, based on the magnetic pull we feel towards certain photographs. Where does this pull come from? What keeps us captivated? What is the madness that only photographic images can evoke? Barthes seeks to understand the essence of photography, which does not arise from technical or sociological factors but from our desire for the photographed object, in other words, “what is romantically called love and death.” The captivating journey finds its focus in a childhood photograph of Barthes’ recently deceased mother, and thus, the book also serves as an homage to his mother.

Despite—or perhaps because of—its highly personal approach, the book gained significant popularity and is considered one of the most quoted works on photography. Barthes’ reflections on photography’s era and its relation to death, especially his introduced concepts of studium and punctum, continue to be widely used in photographic discourse today. Although Barthes’ subjective approach has faced some criticism, its appeal has remained strong over the years. This is quite natural—while photographic techniques and our relationship with images may change over time, our relationship with love and loss, which Barthes finds in photography, is far more enduring.

Publisher: Eesti Kunstiakadeemia Kirjastus
Author: Roland Barthes
Format: Paperback
Edited by: Neeme Lopp
Language: Estonian
Year of Publication: 2015
Pages: 144
Dimensions: 12 x 19 cm
ISBN: 9789949467785

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