I have always loved Photography; the taking the picture and especially being in pictures. I love when pictures of myself turn out just right and all the elements I was trying to capture –the mood, the scenery, the perfect breeze – all work together to create what I then call an Instagram worthy picture. In the reading by Roland Barthes, I understood Studium and Punctum because it is what I try to capture and portray when I take pictures or when I direct a picture being taken of me. I think it is something everyone uses when they take a picture or consider whether or not a picture is worth being shared with the world.
I will use myself as a way to understand both stadium and punctum. The picture (selfie) to the
selfie at work
right is one that I took while at my job. However, after looking at it for a minute I not only posted it on Snapchat but I also posted it on my Instagram story as well. It was studium that made me originally like the picture and do a double take when I saw how it came out. Studium describes the way I felt when I first looked at and appreciated the colors that the sunlight highlighted the way my hair was neatly a mess, and the “effortlessly cute” pose I was in. These were all surface things but first impressions are lasting impressions. And first impressions are important to catch the eye. Punctum is, for a play on words, the point of the picture. It is the tiny details that catch your attention after your eyes have been wowed. It’s smacking them with the brains after the beauty. In this picture it’s the rainbow bow in my hair, that s unlike the soft feel of the picture. It is the perfect eyeliner, pierced ears, shiny eyes and even the Tiger Schulman sign behind my head. These all point to their being a story behind the person in this picture.
In Sternberger’s photos, he definitely employs the ways of studium in his pictures. Being in white and black is especially a statement because things in black and white are often meant to be a statement. In this photo of Einstein (Below), the black and white really draws the eyes to the many wrinkles in his face and his facial expression. For Punctum, however, I believe it is not so easily seen. I personally do not see the deeper meaning or smaller details in this picture. But in the same way I was able to analyze my own picture so well, I think the objects in the picture could analyze their own pictures. Sternberger was said to be “a psychologist with a camera, capturing his subjects’ inner selves in that moment his shutter flicked.” And I think his photographs employed the skill of ‘personal punctum’. Meaning the deeper meaning of the picture could be pondered by others, but it was really up to the subjects of each picture to know.
