“What the Photograph reproduces to infinity has occurred only once: the Photograph mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existentially.” — Roland Barthes
In this digital era, photography enables us to capture our important moments in our own life, store them and share them with others. While many people are doing this, did you ever think of the real meaning behind each photographs you’ve taken? Do you think that each pictures you’ve taken have a specific and solid meanings behind it? Or are you just wasting your time to record something not necessarily meant to your life?
In Roland Barthes’ book, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography, he raised an interesting point that photography is related to death:
“For Death must be somewhere in a society; if it is no longer (or less intensely) in religion, it must be elsewhere; perhaps in this image which produces Death while trying to preserve life.”
In which, he sees that death implicit in each photograph while every photograph is a kind of resurrection. As long as you press down that button of your camera, you have recorded the moment that would have never ever come back again. This move also reminds you that you are stepping toward the end of your life. Death is the final moment of a life and the last possible photograph.
This is a really short, but thoughtful book that I’m highly recommended for those who are interested in photography. More information about the story behind this book:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/mar/26/roland-barthes-camera-lucida-rereading
After reading this I immediately went to raffle through my photography portfolios and photographs that I have taken over the years. Then I notice that if not directly that every photograph I have taken did have a story behind it whether it was of great significant or just a photograph I have taken of my friends. I realized that those moments in time will always be saved as long as I have them and will never be repeated in time ever again. Saying that photography is related to death I personally believe this is right on point. To say that life would last forever is to not live in reality. The fact is that all life sooner or later will come to an end and what the best way of documenting your own personal life than photography. By taking photographs of your life and the way you have experienced it. By the end of your life you would have the ultimate collection of works.
I am very happy that you brought up Barthes! Since I canceled one class, I’ve had to nix our group exercise on Mapplethorpe, in which we tackle Barthes’ concepts of studium and punctum. Camera lucida is, indeed, a short writing, but a powerful work that invites rereading and reconsideration as Barthes addresses our connection to photography and discusses what is difficult to pinpoint and nearly indescribable. btw, a copy of Camera lucida is in the library and excerpts can be found on the internet. As Victor notes, there is a poignant connection between death and photography, and as Barthes would interject, desire.