“Time is of the (Photograph’s) Essence!”

Part One 

“Ultimately, what I am seeking in the photograph taken of me (the “intention” according to which I look at it) is Death: Death is the eidos of the Photograph. Hence, strangely, the only thing that I tolerate, that I like, that is familiar to me, when I am photographed, is the sound of the camera. For me, the Photographer’s organ is not his eye (which terrifies me) but his finger: what is linked to the trigger of the lens, to the metallic shifting of the plates (when the camera still has such things). I love these mechanical sounds in an almost voluptuous way, as if, in the Photograph, they were the very things – and the only thing – to which my desire clings, their abrupt click breaking through the mortiferous layer of the Pose. For me the noise of Time is not sad: I love bells, clocks, watches – and I recall that at first photographic implements were related to techniques of cabinetmaking and the machinery of precision: cameras, in short, were clocks for seeing, and perhaps in me someone very old still hears in the photographic mechanism the living sound of wood” (15).

This passage is intriguing, but a little confusing. Barthes claims that when a photograph is taken, the subject loses some of his or her essence and ultimately “dies” as an object. However, Barthes enjoys hearing the click of the camera, knowing that his image will be captured and his human soul will be lost in the resulting photograph. It is very counterintuitive in that he understands that the death of his mortal essence is a result of the clicking of the camera that he enjoys so much. Also, Barthes explains that he enjoys the sound of time passing, whether it is from the ticking of a watch or the ringing of bells. Is this passage trying to tell the reader something about Barthes’ mental state at the time?

Part Two

“The Photograph does not necessarily what what is no longer, but only and for certain what has been. This distinction is decisive. In front of a photograph, our consciousness does not necessarily take the nostalgic path of memory (how many photographs are outside of individual time), but for every photograph existing in the world, the path of certainty: the Photograph’s essence is to ratify what it represents. One day I received from a photographer a picture of myself which I could not remember being taken, for all my efforts; I inspected the tie, the sweater, to discover in what circumstances I had worn them; to no avail. And yet, because it was a photograph I could not deny that I had been there (even if I did not know where). This distortion between certainty and oblivion gave me a kind of vertigo, something of a “detective” anguish (the theme of Blow-Up was not far off); I went to the photographer’s show as to a police investigation, to learn at last what I no longer knew about myself” (85). 

This passage highlights the idea that the viewer of a photograph can learn something new about themselves when they are the subject of a photograph. For most, when viewers look at a photograph of an unknown subject, they can learn something about the time period that it was taken or about the lifestyle of the subject, and experience what Barthes coins as the “studium.” In this case, Barthes argues that the power of photographs is strong even if the viewer is looking at a photograph of him or herself, a subject that is obviously familiar. It is an automatic time machine that the viewer can use to discover things about themselves that they forgot or never knew before.

Discussion Questions

Roland Barthes died in 1980, 7 years before the popular graphics editor Photoshop was released. How would Roland Barthes react to the usage of such a program to alter photographs? Does Photoshop enhance or take away from the essence of the original photograph? 

Barthes discusses time in various parts of his writing. How does Time relate to the noeme? What is the noeme in your own words?

Barthes discusses in extensive detail the significance of the studium and punctum in a photograph. Do you think that these concepts can be applied to other works of art, like cinematography or literature? Use an example to support your answer.

This is a European painting by Vasily Vereshchagin titled A Resting Place of Prisoners that I saw during the Night at the Brooklyn Museum. The piece grabbed my attention with the waves of wind that pick up the snow and thrust it at the prisoners. Also, the title is contradictory with what is happening in the painting; Vereshchagin describes the prisoners as “resting” even though it must take a strong mentality and many layers of clothing to brave the piercing cold that is depicted.