Vivian Maier – The Street Pictures – 1955 – New York, New York

I will never be able to look at a photograph the same way after reading Roland Barthes’s Camera Lucida. In the book we see Barthes struggling to define photography. He finally comes to terms with the fact that he is unable to define it. Instead he splits photography up into two parts; a studium and a punctum. On page 18 in the book Barthes explains how he realized that only some pictures provoked jubilations within him; only some pictures excited him. He says that the excitement came from the punctum, while the studium is just what the picture is capturing. I was searching through Vivian Maier’s (1926-2009)  picture portfolio of The Street Pictures, waiting for one picture to grab me. Suddenly the one above did just that. In Camera Lucida we see that every picture has a studium, but not every picture has a punctum. The image I chose has both. As I looked at the picture not only did it grab me, but it also put excitement within me. I wanted to know why, so I began studying the image. At first I identified what the picture was clearly showing; I identified the studium. The studium in this photograph is a man sitting on the sidewalk in New York City. There is something wrong with his legs. I realized right away that his legs looked a lot skinnier than normal, and as I looked even closer I saw that he is sitting on crutches. As this is happening people are going on about their days; they are walking right past him. As I looked around the photograph more, I found what I was looking for. I found what stood out to me, what grabbed me. I found the punctum. The punctum in this picture is the little girl’s face  who is walking with her mother on the sidewalk. Her mother is walking straight ahead minding her own business, but the little girl can’t seem to look away from the man sitting on the ground. Her face looks as though it is filled with fear. The girl’s face intrigued me, agitated me, and excited me. It instantly changed the view of the image. The photograph went from a simple day in New York to a whole different meaning. When I now look at the photograph I see feelings. I see the fear of the little girl, which might be making the man feel humiliated, embarrassed, and sad. I now see photography in a whole new light, and with a whole new meaning. I now find more enjoyment in photography than I’ve had before.