Comments for glx

Comment on Reading in a well lit room: Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida by glenl

glenl — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:56:04 +0000

I have no idea if this was foresight on Barthes’ part but I appreciate the lack of detail of the photographic process. There is no discussion of film type, lenses, camera brands, or technique, and I find it particularly interesting that the only color plate in the book is from a polaroid. The work was published in 1980; before digital photography and the ubiquitous cell-phone camera.

I am surprised there was no mention of Henri Cartier-Bresson, who eschewed the photographic process in favor of full-frame, in-the-viewfinder, composition. He used high-speed black and white film solely so he could be stealthy. His goal was to capture that decisive moment of an event.

The memorable portrait photographers—Avedon, Scavullo, sure, but we might relate better to Liebovitz or Arbus—know that there are few moments where the subject lets their guard down and allows some essence of personality (air?) to emerge. There is something in the photograph you understand even if you don’t know the subject. If you do know the subject you know if this essence, that decisive moment of exposure (sorry … guardlessness?), has been captured.

Barthes’ provincial photographer has captured, either intentionally or accidentally, the air of his mother, ruthless evidence that she was beautifully alive at that decisive moment.

Comment on Reading in a well lit room: Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida by glenl

glenl — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:41:06 +0000

You walk through an art gallery, patiently reading the over-intellectualized description that is meant to inform you that you haven't got the degree to stand where you are, and someone sidles up to you and says, "What do you see?" Barthes is looking at photographs and giving us his answers. In this sense it is fascinating. In another sense I can't help but feel he should be writing the little over-intellectualized descriptions for these photographs should you ever see them in a gallery. Barthes weaves a personal thread of deconstruction through various photographs, which I appreciate on a creative analysis level, but the end result fails to move me in any sane direction. Take chapter 45 (p107) where he describes the air of a Photograph. I understand that the use of air is a failure of language but is it really prudent to attribute an air of goodness to an Avedon photograph? Am I being too snide? If Avedon can make Marilyn Monroe look vulnerable, he could probably give Idi Amin an air of goodness. Poor Avedon! I have stereotyped him. Perhaps he is the best example of air. The sadness I discovered in Camera Lucida is, of course, the death of the author's mother. He struggles with what is communicated by his personal photographs, how deeply he feels for this evidence made by a provincial photographer. He clamors inside himself and worries for his own air and if he has any air at all. As an aside on his air, compare the Camera Lucida cover photograph of Barthes to his wiki entry.

Comment on ‘as if’ - uncertainty, speculation, (re)presentation by Randy Fromm

Randy Fromm — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:04:32 +0000

So, here’s a thought: We could map this whole thing onto a semiotic square with the vertices defined as ‘conjectural,’ ‘non/not-conjectural,’ ‘anti-conjectural,’ and ‘non/not-anti-conjectural.’ I was playing with something like this at some point a while back. I will see if I can find the diagram I made up then and scan it and send it to you to add to the post (since I appear to have some trouble posting graphics).

This example that you cite would, in all likelihood, fall under the ‘non/not-conjectural’ form of ‘as if.’

Comment on ‘as if’ - uncertainty, speculation, (re)presentation by glenl

glenl — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 06:09:18 +0000

We talked briefly about this today and I wanted the reference noted:

I ate only half of my hamburger. I couldn’t manage the whole thing. Walter ate the other half, slotting it into his mouth in one bite as if mailing it. [p295]

Not just putting it in his mouth: slotting it. I confess some difficulty in describing this instance of the ‘as if’ form as something as lofty as “anti-conjectural”; it is pure imagery to me.