Toni Ahvenainen
The Photographic experience
Season of Photographic Eye - picture 9
Week 49, Wednesday
In previous post I told you about Roland Barthes, the French intellectual and philosopher, who has tried to explain the essence of photography and devised the term punctum to describe the unique feelings photography can bring up in us. Being especially a French philosopher his writings can be pretty abstract, but I do like what Barthes is trying to explain with his winding words. I myself used this term for my own purposes when I tried to describe what I am (ideally) searching for when taking family photographs – a certain sting that makes one see being, life and time in a lucid way. At best, photographs have that sort of effect on us. But what Barthes is really trying to do, is to create a new kind of understanding of photography that doesn't rely on any existing theories of art or cultural studies. Instead he claims that in the core of photographic experience there is the punctum, which is mostly an experience which cannot be described with words or existing discourses, and because of this the essence of photography remains, in the end, unexplained by words but still experienced from material photographs.
In another excerpt about the punctum, Barthes explains how some photographs have certain details that viewer just cannot help but keep on staring. It might be the suede shoes the subject wears, the certain posture of hands, the stingy gaze, the oppressive mood of the sky, the dusk that makes subject unknown, the furniture in the room, etc. What Barthes (probably) means relates to iconic character of some images that transmutes mundane everyday life into exquisite imagery. They are photographs that transcends time being beautiful yet strange, somewhat mysterious and in the end something that speak to people. If you have studied photographs with any sensibility for the subject, you definitely know the feeling of fascination when something just grabs your attention in photograph and makes you stare it for a long time without any explicit reason.
Rather than believing in strict rules of good photography which are usually part of any 'photography 101' lessons (rules of third, position of horizon, point of view, leading lines, etc.), I'm much more drawn to Barthes's philosophic discourse. Not only does it rescue the captivating nature of original photographic experience from overanalyzing and fractioning it, it also makes room for more authentic aesthetic experience. Thinking that photography is not about executing certain technical or aesthetic rules but about the photographic experience, gives me a permission to think that any everyday situation can potentially be a source of exquisite imagery. Rather than limiting myself to any genre and its established practices, I'm free to explore the world and life in the original, raw and unaltered way. And to be honest, I'm quite content that I haven't concentrated on an particular genre of photography (portraits, landscapes, sport and all the other usual suspects). Personally, having certain diversity is a great source of joy to me. I also think that because of this, it has been easier to find my own way of seeing things and world through a viewfinder.
Year of the Alpha – 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: www.yearofthealpha.com
The Photographic experience
Season of Photographic Eye - picture 9
Week 49, Wednesday
In previous post I told you about Roland Barthes, the French intellectual and philosopher, who has tried to explain the essence of photography and devised the term punctum to describe the unique feelings photography can bring up in us. Being especially a French philosopher his writings can be pretty abstract, but I do like what Barthes is trying to explain with his winding words. I myself used this term for my own purposes when I tried to describe what I am (ideally) searching for when taking family photographs – a certain sting that makes one see being, life and time in a lucid way. At best, photographs have that sort of effect on us. But what Barthes is really trying to do, is to create a new kind of understanding of photography that doesn't rely on any existing theories of art or cultural studies. Instead he claims that in the core of photographic experience there is the punctum, which is mostly an experience which cannot be described with words or existing discourses, and because of this the essence of photography remains, in the end, unexplained by words but still experienced from material photographs.
In another excerpt about the punctum, Barthes explains how some photographs have certain details that viewer just cannot help but keep on staring. It might be the suede shoes the subject wears, the certain posture of hands, the stingy gaze, the oppressive mood of the sky, the dusk that makes subject unknown, the furniture in the room, etc. What Barthes (probably) means relates to iconic character of some images that transmutes mundane everyday life into exquisite imagery. They are photographs that transcends time being beautiful yet strange, somewhat mysterious and in the end something that speak to people. If you have studied photographs with any sensibility for the subject, you definitely know the feeling of fascination when something just grabs your attention in photograph and makes you stare it for a long time without any explicit reason.
Rather than believing in strict rules of good photography which are usually part of any 'photography 101' lessons (rules of third, position of horizon, point of view, leading lines, etc.), I'm much more drawn to Barthes's philosophic discourse. Not only does it rescue the captivating nature of original photographic experience from overanalyzing and fractioning it, it also makes room for more authentic aesthetic experience. Thinking that photography is not about executing certain technical or aesthetic rules but about the photographic experience, gives me a permission to think that any everyday situation can potentially be a source of exquisite imagery. Rather than limiting myself to any genre and its established practices, I'm free to explore the world and life in the original, raw and unaltered way. And to be honest, I'm quite content that I haven't concentrated on an particular genre of photography (portraits, landscapes, sport and all the other usual suspects). Personally, having certain diversity is a great source of joy to me. I also think that because of this, it has been easier to find my own way of seeing things and world through a viewfinder.
Year of the Alpha – 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: www.yearofthealpha.com