Readings

While Baudelaire has a universally negative approach to photography being viewed as anything other than a science, nearly 100 years later Sontag and Barthes see photography a bit differently.  While Sontag has expresses distaste for certain things that photography is used for, she does seem to approve of its inclusion as an art form. One of the issues brought up by Sontag is that photography can “violate” the person in the photograph. The camera probes and captures them forever, they are turned into an object, a possession of the photographer and of everyone who is able to see the photograph. This made me think of how certain cultures are extremely against having their picture taken. They believe that it is a violation and that the pictures captures something of them they can never get back.

Barthes idea of the punctum and the studium is a fascinating idea, and one the seems to me at least to be incredibly true. I found the perfect example of this when I brought in my picture for the class assignment on Friday. When I look at that photo of my two friends and I, it brings up emotions and has meaning to me that anyone else (excluding perhaps the two people in the picture) could understand. While others may find the picture nice to look at, and can recognize that the picture depicts friends, they are not stirred in the same way, nor can they understand fully all that the picture stands for to me just by looking at it. It makes me reflect not only on our friendship then, and brings up memories not only of that day (of which when I look at the photo I can remember quite a lot of) but also makes me think about now, and about the lasting and enduring bond of friendship we share, how we could not have known then all the struggles and triumphs we would face, but looking at are faces we knew we would see them through together.