Roland Barthes Camera Lucida

Roland Barthes Camera Lucida

After reading Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida I found it difficult to read, and hard to understand. Throughout the reading, there were a few things that stood out to me. The first quote was “Color is a coating applied later on to the original truth of the black and white photograph.” I thought this was interesting because I almost feel the same way. I prefer black and white images over color images. I believe in black and white images, whatever is being captured has more beauty in black and white, than it would in color. Barthes finished that idea with this: “For me, color is an artifice, a cosmetic (like the kind used to paint corpses).” The rest of the article goes on to talk about photographs in different ways; by date, how photographs are violet, how they don’t keep a memory, etc. I thought how Barthes said that photographs aren’t memories was interesting because you would think if you looked at an image you would remember something from that time, but according to Barthes you do not. “…it actually blocks memory, quickly becomes a counter-memory.”

Susan Sontag's "On Photography"

Susan Sontag’s “On Photography”

“To collect photographs is to collect the world.” This quote by Susan Sontag really caught my eye; I found it to be the most interesting part of the whole excerpt. I like how Sontag described photographs and how it was a still photo and that movies and televisions light up your room, but then go out, unlike photographs that are always there. All together I thought that this excerpt from Sontag’s book was very interesting and filled with information. She makes me think about photography in more ways than one; making me see photography in ways that I have not thought about, which I thought was very interesting. 

John Szarkowski’s The Photographer’s Eye

I found John Szarkowski’s The Photographer’s Eye kind of difficult to read. The first few paragraphs were probably the most difficult to understand, having to read it more than once. When I was reading it, it felt like it really did not flow very well, and I found myself having to read some sentences more than once so I could understand what Szarkowski was saying. I did find the piece interesting, how he separated the piece and talking about photography into five sections: The Thing Itself, The Detail, The Frame, Time, and Vantage Point. In these sections Szarkowski was descriptive and gave substantial information, not leaving me asking myself “now what does he mean by this.” 

Back to school

"Back to school. Back to school, to prove to Dad that I'm not a fool. I got my lunch packed up, my boots tied tight, I hope I don't get in a fight" - Billy Madison

Well yesterday was the first day back to class after winter break. I am excited to do this photography project as the first project this semester. I hope this semester won't be so hard on me!