Project 4.

Current progress... but I'm still experimenting. /:

Questions CH1

#1 What does Barthes mean when he says "Whatever it grants to vision and whatever its manner, a photograph is always invisble; it is not it that we see"? (P.20)

#2 If self-awarness makes one more uncomfortable in front of the camera, how can we disconnect with ourselves in order to create a better self portrait?

#3 Can the photographer really control the "sentiment" created in a photograph? Do we not all see what we choose to see?

#4 Why is the photograph pure "contingency" if we have control to construct meaning from anything we see?

#5 Is the human inclination toward nostalgia what makes old photos feel so meaningful? Or is it something else?

Erin Scott

How does creating a self-portrait of yourself affect the meaning of the photograph?

Why is the idea of the “original source” so often questioned in photography?

Why does Barthes see photographs, and not any other medium, as an object?

How do Barthes views fit in with post-modernist ideas of originality?

Compare Barthes views with that of Native Americans.

Cool Shit

http://michaelbuhlerrose.com/

Questions

Does studium imply subjectivity?

Is the audience to which photographs speak most important?

How can photography give someone a sentiment? Or all viewing the photo?

How can photography act in opposition to the cinema?

How does photography make people uneasy that traditional mediums cannot achieve?

Roland Barthes

1. How/why do these questions of the original source not come up in other mediums?
2. Relates to ideas of the signifier/signified
3. How do photographs help us bridge the gaps created by history

Roland Barthes - Camera Lucinda

1.) Does Barthes idea that the photograph exists as a duality, as something we can conceive but not perceive, help you to identify with the photographic image as an object?

2.) After reading Barthes experiences with being photographed, I believe that the physical, chemical and mechanical properties of image making in photography are foreign to the way in which we think of the ingenuity and originality of making art.

3.) I think that by Barthes identifying himself with an object as his way of reacting to being photographed is relate able to some of the notions of post-modernist photography and identifying what constitutes and image and authenticity.

4.) I enjoyed this article because it focuses on some of the same issues and experiences I have had with being photographed and photographs. Do you think that Barthes would feel the same about being photographed if he himself was taking, processing and creating the image?

5.) Why do you think that Barthes was able to find the "authenticity" of the photographic image in the old photo of his mother, rather than in the other countless photos?