The Camera Lucida was Roland Barthes’ last work in 1981. The book seems to be composed of delirious thinking and scattered essays, but in fact, a kind of phenomenological thinking throughout. In this way of de-theorizing, conceptualizing, and systematizing, Barthes constructed his unique theoretical framework of visual analysis, namely “Get back to Photography” (p.7). In Barthes’s eyes, it can lead readers to perceive the elements related to beauty, eternity, and touching in the other world. These elements are known as Punctum by Roland Barthes.
Studium and Punctum, these two words were raised as an important point by Barthes in Camera Lucida. He made a classification of the two types of visual analysis: Studium is the beautiful feeling usually brought to us when viewing a visual work, which can be understood and appreciated by people in rational and cultural categories. At the same time, Punctum is the voice that is not harmonious with the main melody in the picture, which is the Punctum that gives the audience’s vision an impact. “It has no meaning, but it evokes the deepest meaning (p.34)”. Barthes argues. “It cannot be seen, but it is unmistakably there, for it has a vague charm and fascination, like the siren song of a mermaid. Attraction and fascination (p.44)”. Barthes thinks good photographs are Punctum’s symbionts, but most of them are Studium only, such photographs are at best interesting, but not moving. However, only the photographs with Punctum enable us to comprehend a Punctum, which is more remote than the photographs themselves. A good photograph is one with a “Punctum” that the viewer has to find (Barthes, 1981).
However, Tonkiss’s discourse analysis needs to be analyzed from objectivity and “how-to”. Barthes believes that visual analysis should be the starting point for the viewer. Because he believed that the inescapable symbols with personal emotional preferences in viewing photographic images could connect the viewer’s different feelings when viewing the images. In his opinion, this process is essential. To some extent, the viewer’s subjective experience and emotional experience necessarily determine whether there can be “Punctum” in the photo that stings the viewer. When viewing the photos, the viewer must have his or her feelings inside. His or her interpretation of the photos directly affects the photographer’s creation. However, the individual experience and emotion of the viewer cannot be duplicated, so the “Punctum” becomes an absolute subjective existence (Barthes, 1981). Compared with Tonkiss’s objective analysis of things, Barthes’s personal feelings are more intense. However, we cannot draw an absolute conclusion about who is right and who is terrible. Although Barthes analyzed the picture from the viewer’s perspective, the individual subjectivity would affect the truth of the fact. However, the viewer can relate to the photographer’s mental state when taking this picture through their own experience, which leads to more exciting conjectures, isn’t it a virtue?
Reference
Barthes, Roland. 1981. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. First American edition. New York: Hill; Wang.
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