Summary: The Third Meaning by Roland Barthes

In "The Third Meaning," Roland Barthes explores the concept of an obtuse meaning in film, which is a signifier without a signified. This third meaning is not located in language or language use, but rather in the image itself. It is a subversive element that disrupts the practice of meaning-making and is outside of articulated language, yet within interlocution. The filmic, which is the founding act of the filmic itself, lies precisely in that region where articulated language is no longer more than approximative and where another language begins.

Barthes argues that the still, a photograph taken from a film, offers us the inside of the fragment and throws off the constraint of filmic time. It is a quotation that is parodic and disseminatory, and it is the fragment of a second text whose existence never exceeds the fragment. While film is bound by the constraint of logical time, the still allows for a reading that is instantaneous and vertical, teaching us how to dissociate the technical constraint from what is the specific filmic and which is the "indescribable" meaning.

Barthes's exploration of the third meaning and the filmic provides a theoretical framework for understanding the ways in which film operates beyond language and meaning-making. It suggests that the power of film lies not only in its narrative or aesthetic qualities but also in its ability to evoke an ineffable, indescribable meaning that cannot be captured by language alone.

Read more:

The Death of the Author

Mythologies and Myth Today

Rehtoric of the Image

On Photography

Elements of Semiology

The Pleasure of the Text

The Photographic Message

Best Books By Roland Barthes - A recommanded reading list

"The Photographic Message" by Barthes - summary and overview

Overview

In "The Photographic Message," Roland Barthes analyzes the message of a press photograph, which he sees as composed of three parts: the source of emission, the channel of transmission, and the point of reception. While the emission and reception of the message fall within the field of sociology, the photograph itself requires a specific method of analysis focused on its unique structure.

Barthes argues that the photograph is a continuous message without a code, as it is an analogue of reality. However, he suggests that the photographic message is not purely denoted but also connoted through various procedures, such as trick effects, pose, objects, photogenia, aestheticism, and syntax. These procedures add a second-order message derived from a code that is communicated to the public.

Barthes highlights the paradox of the photographic message, which is both objective and invested, natural and cultural. He suggests that the connoted message in a photograph is produced by a modification of the reality itself, of the denoted message. The photograph allows the photographer to conceal the preparation to which he subjects the scene to be recorded.

Barthes emphasizes the importance of understanding the mode of imbrication of denoted and connoted messages to reply to the ethical paradox of being neutral and objective while creating a connoted message. He concludes that the photographic message is a double structure-denoted-connoted, and the connoted message develops on the basis of a message without a code.

Summary of "The Photographic Message"

This "The Photographic Message" provides a detailed analysis of the various connotation procedures of photographic images, shedding light on the intricate relationship between the image and its cultural context. Barthes explores different aspects of photographic connotation, including gesture, pose, objects, photogenia, aestheticism, and syntax, and shows how each of these elements contributes to the overall meaning of a photograph.

One of the key points made in "The Photographic Message" is that the code of connotation is historical and depends on the reader's cultural situation. The author argues that the meaning of a photograph is not fixed or objective but is rather shaped by the cultural codes and assumptions of the society in which it is produced and consumed. This means that the same photograph can be read in different ways by different people, depending on their cultural background and knowledge.

Another important aspect of photographic connotation that the author explores is the role of text in accompanying a photograph. Barthes argues that the text accompanying a photograph is a parasitic message designed to connote the image, and the image no longer illustrates the words. In other words, the text is secondary to the image and is used to supplement or enhance the meaning of the photograph.

"The Photographic Message" also discusses the paradoxical nature of the photograph, which transforms an inert object into a language and the unculture of a "mechanical" art into the most social of institutions. The author suggests that this paradox arises from the fact that the photograph is both an objective record of reality and a highly subjective medium of cultural expression. The photograph captures a moment in time and space, but its meaning is always shaped by the cultural codes and assumptions that surround it.

In summary, "The Photographic Message" provides a fascinating exploration of the complex and multifaceted nature of photographic connotation. It shows how the meaning of a photograph is shaped by a range of cultural, historical, and linguistic factors, and how the photograph itself is a paradoxical medium that both captures and transforms reality. Whether you are a photographer, a visual artist, or simply someone interested in the power of images to shape our understanding of the world, this document is sure to provide valuable insights and perspectives.

Know more:

Roland Barthes Explained

Death of the Author

Rehtoric of the Image

On Photography

Elements of Semiology

The Pleasure of the Text

Best Books By Roland Barthes - A recommanded reading list

Summary: "The Pleasure of the Text" by Barthes

"The Pleasure of the Text" is a seminal work by French literary critic and philosopher Roland Barthes. In this book, Barthes explores the concept of textual pleasure - the enjoyment that readers derive from reading and interpreting texts.

Barthes argues that texts can be read in two ways: the "text of pleasure" and the "text of bliss". The text of pleasure is a text that is easily consumed, with a clear, linear narrative and a simple, straightforward meaning. The reader derives pleasure from following the story and understanding the message.

The text of bliss, on the other hand, is a more complex and challenging text. It resists easy interpretation and demands that the reader engage with it on a deeper level. The reader derives pleasure from the act of reading itself, from the challenge of trying to make sense of the text and from the creative process of interpretation.

Barthes also explores the idea of the "writerly text", which is a text that invites the reader to participate in the creation of meaning. Rather than presenting a fixed, unchanging message, the writerly text allows the reader to actively engage with the text and create their own interpretations.

Throughout the book, Barthes draws on a range of literary and philosophical theories to explore the pleasures of reading. He argues that textual pleasure is not just a matter of individual taste or preference, but is deeply embedded in the cultural and historical contexts in which texts are produced and consumed.

In summary. "The Pleasure of the Text" is a challenging work in semiotics that invites readers to rethink their relationship to reading and interpretation. By exploring the complexities and pleasures of textual engagement, Barthes invites us to see texts as dynamic, multi-layered creations that are open to endless interpretation and reinterpretation.

Barthes book and article summaries:

Death of the Author

Rehtoric of the Image

On Photography

Elements of Semiology

Best Books By Roland Barthes - a recommanded reading list

Best Books By Roland Barthes - a recommended reading list

Roland Barthes was a French literary critic, philosopher, and semiotician. He is best known for his works on the nature of language, literature, and semiotics. Barthes' ideas have had a significant impact on literary theory and cultural studies. Reading Barthes can provide readers with a unique perspective on language, literature, and culture. His ideas challenge traditional notions of meaning, interpretation, and authorship, encouraging readers to think more deeply about the ways in which we communicate and construct meaning in our daily lives. By reading Barthes, readers can gain a deeper understanding of the complex relationship between language and culture, and become more aware of the subtle ways in which meaning is conveyed and constructed. Moreover, Barthes' writing style is engaging and accessible, making his work an enjoyable and thought-provoking read for anyone interested in philosophy, literature, or cultural studies.

Best Barthes Books (in our opinion)

One of Barthes' most famous works is "Image-Music-Text", a collection of essays that explores the relationship between language and culture. The essays cover a wide range of topics, from the meaning of photographs to the role of music in film.

Another important work by Barthes is "Mythologies", which examines the ways in which everyday objects and events are imbued with cultural meaning. In this work, Barthes analyzes a variety of cultural phenomena, from advertising to professional wrestling. For those new to Barthes' work, "Mythologies" is a good place to start . This book provides a comprehensive overview of Barthes' ideas and is written in an accessible style.

"The Death of the Author" is another influential essay by Barthes. In this essay, Barthes argues that the meaning of a text is not determined by the author's intentions, but rather by the reader's interpretation.

"Camera Lucida" is another important work by Barthes. In this book, Barthes reflects on the nature of photography and its relationship to memory and mortality.

Finally, "S/Z" is a seminal work of literary criticism that examines the structure of a short story by Balzac. This book is more technical than some of Barthes' other works and is best suited for readers with some background in literary theory.

Read more:

Roland Barthes Explained (simply)

Roland Barthes's "Elements of Semiology" - summary and review

Roland Barthes's "Elements of Semiology" is a seminal work in the field of semiotics, which is the study of signs and symbols and their meaning. In this book, Barthes explores the ways in which signs are used to create meaning in language, literature, art, and culture.

Barthes's "Elements of Semiology" is divided into two main sections: the first deals with the nature and function of the sign, while the second deals with the ways in which signs are used in various cultural contexts.

The Signifier and Signified

Barthes begins by defining semiology as the study of the sign, which he describes as an entity that stands for something else. He then goes on to discuss the different types of signs, including linguistic signs (words), iconic signs (images), and indexical signs (signs that point to something else, such as smoke pointing to fire). By examining these different types of signs, Barthes shows how meaning is constructed through the use of signs in various contexts.

One of the key concepts that Barthes introduces in this book is the idea of the signifier and the signified. The signifier is the physical form of the sign (such as the word "tree"), while the signified is the concept or meaning that the sign represents (such as the idea of a tree). Barthes argues that the relationship between the signifier and the signified is not fixed or natural, but rather is constructed by cultural and social conventions. This means that the meaning of a sign can vary depending on the context in which it is used.

Myth and Semiology

Another important concept that Barthes discusses in "Elements of Semiology" is the idea of myth. He argues that myth is a type of sign that naturalizes and universalizes particular cultural values and beliefs, making them seem natural and inevitable. For example, the idea of the American dream is a myth that naturalizes the idea of upward mobility and success in American society. By analyzing these myths, Barthes shows how they contribute to the construction of meaning in culture and society. These thoughts later inspired Barthes's works "Myth Today" and "Mythologies".

In summary, Barthes's "Elements of Semiology" is a challenging but important work that has had a lasting impact on the field of semiotics. The book offers a rich and complex analysis of the ways in which signs are used to create meaning in language, culture, and society. While some of the concepts may be difficult to grasp, the book is well worth reading for anyone interested in the study of signs and symbols.

Read more:

Roland Barthes / Rhetoric of the Image

The Photographic Message

Roland Barthes Explained

A Comparative Analysis of Stanley Fish and Roland Barthes

Stanley Fish and Roland Barthes are two of the most well-known and influential literary theorists of the twentieth century. While both scholars have made significant contributions to the field of literary theory and semiotics, their approaches and methodologies join and part ways in various points.

Despite their divergent approaches to literary theory, Fish and Barthes share a mutual agreement regarding the importance of close reading and attention to detail in the interpretation of texts. Both scholars acknowledge the complexity and ambiguity of language and advocate for careful analysis and interpretation as essential tools for understanding the meaning of a text.

Fish, drawing on the principles of New Criticism, emphasizes the significance of the reader's subjective engagement with a text, arguing that meaning is created through the reader's interpretive act (see Reader-Response Theory). On the other hand, Barthes argues that the author's intention is irrelevant to the creation of meaning in a text, and instead, he focuses on the role of the reader in interpreting the text (see Death of the Author). Despite this difference, both scholars underscore the importance of close reading and interpretation.

Both thinker do not only focus on subjective interpretation but also on collective one. This aspect of their work can be found in fish's notion of Interpretive Communities, and in Barthes's work on Myth Today. 

Another area of commonality between Fish and Barthes is their recognition of the importance of language and its inherent complexity. Fish argues that language is inherently self-referential and meaning is created through a process of repetition and difference. In contrast, Barthes emphasizes the significance of the signifier and signified in the creation of meaning, arguing that meaning is created through a process of interpretation and decoding. Despite the differences in their approaches to language, both scholars recognize the intricate and multifaceted nature of language and the need for careful analysis and interpretation to understand the meaning of a text.

Despite these differences, Fish and Barthes share a commitment to the importance of close reading and attention to the details of a text. Both scholars recognize the complexity and ambiguity of language, and emphasize the need for careful analysis and interpretation in order to understand the meaning of a text.

See also: Barthes Explained

Is There a Text in This Class? by Stanley Fish

Stanley Fish on Law, Politics and Literature

Roland Barthes's semiotics explained

Roland Barthes's semiotics is a philosophical approach to studying communication and its elements of meaning. It was first developed by Barthes in the 1960s and has since been adopted by many scholars in their study of human signification.

In its simplest form, semiotics is the study of signs and symbols. These signs and symbols can be anything from words and images to gestures, facial expressions, body language and anything we use to convey information and meaning. Semiotics looks at how these signs and symbols are used to create meaning and how meanings are interpreted by the receiver. The founder of modern semiotics is ofter considered to be Ferdinand de Saussure, and he is the origin of Barthes's discourse about the sign, signifier and signified.

Barthes's approach to semiotics was to focus on the meaning of the relationship between the signifier and the signified. He argued that the signifier (the sign) is a physical representation of the signified (the concept). This relationship is essential in the understanding of any kind of communication, as the signifier is the physical representation of the signified, which is the concept that is being communicated.

Barthes also argued that the signifier is not simply a physical representation of the signified, but that it is also an active element in communication. He believed that the signifier has the power to create meaning and that it is up to the receiver to interpret the message. This means that the receiver can interpret the message in different ways depending on the context, the culture, and their own background and experience.

Read more about Barthes:

Death of the Author

Rehtoric of the Image

On Photography

Mythologies

Elements of Semiology

Roland Barthes Explained - summaries of ideas and books

Roland Barthes (1915 - 1980) was a French literary critic, literary critic, social theorist and semiotician. Barthes's works are among the most central in both the structuralist and post-structuralist currents in semiotics. He was an overt homosexual, and some describe him as one of the fathers of queer theory. In addition, the autobiographical and aesthetic quality of Barthes's writings transforms many of them from theoretical studies to real literature.

In his 1967 article "The Death of the Author"  Barthes argued strongly against the centrality of the author's character in the study of literature. Michel Foucault 's article , What is an Author? Responded to Barthes' article in an analysis of the author's social and literary functions.

Barthes's book, S/Z , is often referred to as the masterpiece of structuralist literary criticism. In this book, Barthes analyzes Balzac's "Sarrasine" story, examines sentence after sentence, and associates each word and sentence with different "codes" and different stages of meaning in the story. However, there are those who argue that already in this book Barthes is in fact making a parody of structuralist research, and to the point of ridiculing the research methods of this current.

Barthes's cultural critique, published in "Mythologies", among others , contains some of the founding texts of the stream of cultural studies . In these studies he applied techniques of social and literary critique of mass culture . "Mythologies" is a collection of short and clever analyzes of cultural objects, from zoos to museums and fashion (a topic that  Barthes described in detail later in his article The Fashion System ). The second part of Mythologies is the theortical Myth Today.

Some of Barthes's later works are more personal, though they are still critical works. The most famous of these works is his book Roland Barthes (often also called "Barthes on Barthes"), a theoretical autobiography , arranged in alphabetical order rather than chronologically. His latest book, Camera Lucida, is a personal memoir, memoirs about his mother and him, and research on photography .

In 1975 , Barthes was accepted to the prestigious Collège de France, with the help of Michel Foucault, who supported him despite the strained relationship between the two thinkers. He held the chair of semiology from 1980-1977. On February 26, 1980, Barthes was hit by a truck on the Rue de l'Ecole in Paris , following a gala dinner attended by François Mitterrand . He died of his wounds about a month later, on March 26, 1980.

Barthes book and article summaries:

Death of the Author

Rehtoric of the Image

On Photography

Elements of Semiology

The Pleasure of the Text

The Photographic Message

Best Books By Roland Barthes - A recommanded reading list

Barthes's "The Death of the Author" and Foucault's "What is an Author?"

The essays "The Death of the Author" by Roland Barthes and "What is an Author?" by Michel Foucault both address the concept of authorship and the role of the author in interpreting a work of literature. 

Barthes's "The Death of the Author" is a classic text in the field of literary theory, in which he argues that the author's intention is not relevant to the meaning of a text. According to Barthes, the text itself is the only thing that matters, and the reader is free to interpret it in any way they choose. He believes that the author's intention, biography, and other contextual information are not necessary for understanding a text, and that they can even be harmful to the interpretation process.

Foucault, on the other hand, takes a more nuanced approach to the subject of authorship in his essay "What is an Author?" He argues that the author is not simply a neutral creator of a text, but rather a historical and cultural construct that serves a specific function in society. According to Foucault, the author is a figure that serves to legitimize knowledge and to provide a framework for interpreting a text. While he does not completely dismiss the importance of the author, Foucault suggests that the author's role in interpreting a text should be carefully considered and that other factors, such as the historical and cultural context, should also be taken into account.

So how is the author doing?

In conclusion, while Barthes and Foucault both address the concept of authorship and the role of the author in interpreting a text, they have different perspectives on the subject. Barthes's "The Death of the Author" argues that the author's intention is not relevant to the meaning of a text, while Foucault's "What is an Author?" suggests that the author is a cultural construct that serves a specific function in society. What both notions of the author have in common is first the understanding that he is not some original free-standing and autonomous entity. They both do agree that writing and reading are culturaly conditioned, and the text is always something which is produced. 

See also: The Author as Producer by Walter Benjamin

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*This text was written with the aid of OpenAI’s GPT-3 model with modifications and editing by the author.

Influence and Critique of Barthes' Death of the Author

The ideas presented by Roland Barthes in his famous "The Death of the Author" drew as much influence as they did criticism. Many thinkers took the death of the author to heart while others sought to show why it is wrong and the author still lives.

 

Commonalities 

The ideas presented in The Death of the Author were to some anticipated extent by the literary school called New Criticism. The New Criticism precept about “intentional fallacy” declares that a poem does not belong to its author; rather, had its meaning beyond the author's control. 

Barthes' work has much in common with the ideas of the Yale school of Deconstruction in the 1970s, although they were not inclined to see the meaning as the production of the reader. Barthes, like the deconstructionists, insists on the disjointed nature of the texts, their cracks in meaning and their incongruities, interruptions and ruptures. 

Michel Foucault also addresses the question of the author in critical interpretation. In his 1969 essay "What is an Author?"  he develops the idea of ​​“authorship” to explain the author as a classifying principle within a particular discursive formation. Foucault does not mention Barthes in his essay, but his analysis is seen as a challenge to Barthes' description of a historical progression that frees the reader from the author's domination. Jacques Derrida paid ironic homage to La Mort de l'auteur in his essay Les Morts de Roland Barthes.

Thinkers associated with Feminism and the gay rights movement find an anti-patriarchal, anti-traditional pathos of destruction in Barth's work . In their reading, this essay is directed not only against a stable literary-critical interpretation, but also against a stable self-identification.

 

Critique of The Death of the Author

In the satirical essay Roland Barthes' Resurrection of the Author and Redemption of Biography JC Carlier (a pseudonym of Cedric Watts, argues that the essay The Death of the Author is the litmus test of critical competence. Those who take it at face value automatically fail this test; those who take it ironically and recognize a work of fine satirical fiction are the ones who pass the test.

 

Read more about the Philosophy of Roland Barthes and a simple explanation of the Death of the Author.

Here you can find a comparison of Barthes's "The Death of the Author" and Foucault's "What is an Author?"

 

 

 

S/Z by Roland Barthes - summary

S/Z is an essay by Roland Barthes published in 1970 and dedicated entirely to the analysis of a short story by Balzac , Sarrasine.

In his study, Barthes enumerates five "codes", the appearances of which he carefully notes. He briefly paraphrased the content of each of the “  lexies  ”. Long digressions interrupt this exegesis; they place Balzac's text in a web of references: linguistics , psychoanalysis , philosophy , sociology ... This way of proceeding does not elude three of the major gestures of criticism: quoting, showing significant elements, interpreting . Yet an ambiguous impression emerges: in S/Z , knowledge and critical ambition seem to be “played out”. The five "codes" are supposed to form a network through which the Balzacian narrative takes shape, but the very term "code" is here a metaphor and designates fuzzy organizations. These "codes" are called: "  hermeneutics  " (organizing the story by riddles and unveiling); "  Semic  " (controlling the characters attributed to the characters); "  Symbolic  " (the most vague, including language, economic exchanges, the body, desire); “  Proairetic  ” (unfolding the action sequences); "  Cultural  " (bringing together period stereotypes in a sort of romantic encyclopedia). Passed through the five "codes", the text ofBalzac takes the form of Barthes' knowledge  : under the name of "cultural code" reappears the ideological criticism dear to the author of Mythologies  ; the action sequences respond to the structural and narratological approach; the "semic" code recalls a semiotics of connotation; the "symbolic", for its part, brings into play notions from ( Lacanian ) psychoanalysis and a vague sociology. The humanities of the 1970s were given the attributes and prestige of a serious game. But what matters is that through them, the news of Balzac acquires intensity and incomparable presence.

The commentary makes one feel the tension between the modern “realistic” esthetics, which appears conventional, and the human stakes of the Balzacian narrative: the drama of castration and of the deceived love, the bond which knots, through the intermediary of the narrative. , the narrator and his readers.

The "old melodrama" draws a redoubled fascination from it. The title alone shows this art of commentary. S and Z are the initials of the protagonists: Sarrasine, the sculptor in love, and Zambinella, the castrato under his feminized name. The bar symbolizes their opposition: it highlights the contrast of the two consonants, one deaf (s) , the other voiced ( z , for the castrato whose song fascinates), and it offers the surface of a mirror to the inverted arabesques of the two letters, as if Sarrasine had to recognize himself in the mutilated image of Zambinella, to which his passion would swallow him.

Additional summaries and articles on Roland Barthes:

Death of the Author

Rehtoric of the Image

On Photography

Mythologies

Myth Today

Camera Lucida (On Photography)

Camera Lucida / Roland Barthes - detailed summary and analysis

(Here you can find a shorter summary of Camera Lucida)

Camera Lucida: Thoughts on Photography is a work by Roland Barthes published in 1980, in which the Barthes questions the nature of photography, trying to understand if it has a "genius of its own", a trait that distinguishes it from other means of representation.

Camera Lucida work echoes a difficult period that the writer lived after the death of his mother on October 25, 1977. It is dedicated to L'Imaginaire by Jean-Paul Sartre .

The title of Camera Lucida (in french La Chambre claire) is a play on words based on the etymology of the words "camera" and "room" from the same Latin word camera . The photography developed in the dark ( the dark room - lat. Camera obscura ), is characterized above all by its obviousness, its certain character. According to Barthes, photography is therefore closer to the idea of camera lucida , because unlike other perceptions, it gives its object in an indisputable and precise way.

Camera Lucida is illustrated by 25 photographs, old and contemporary, chosen by the writer. Among them are the works of famous photographers such as William Klein , Robert Mapplethorpe or Nadar , but also a photograph from the author's private collection. Among the photographers cited, and on whose photographs he based the evolution of his thought, we find in particular, (given here in decreasing order of frequency): Robert Mapplethorpe , André Kertész , William Klein , Nadar , Richard Avedon , Francis Apesteguy and more .

Camera Lucida consists of 48 chapters divided into two parts. As the subtitle specifies (“Note on the photograph”), it is a free form, without a strict structure. Barthes does not start from a fixed thesis, he presents the evolution of his thought: he returns to ideas expressed in the preceding chapters to complete them or even deny them. Starting from a desire to conceive the art of photography, the story becomes more and more personal in the second part (“I had to descend further into myself to find the evidence of photography”). The scientific register which is illustrated by the precision of the vocabulary, numerous scholarly and cultural references gives way to the subjective register, very intimate (use of personal pronouns of the first person singular,

The three perspectives on photography 

In Camera Lucida Barthes distinguishes three points of view vis-à-vis a photograph:

Operator - the one who takes the photo. Barthes is not a photographer, so he cannot talk about Operator's emotion. He supposes, however, that Operator's photograph would be "a vision cut through the keyhole of the camera obscura ."

Spectator - the one who looks at the photo.

Spectrum - the target, the referent of the photo: an object or a human being. Barthes chooses the word “spectrum” to underline the relationship that photography maintains with the spectacle.

The person photographed is both:

1) the one she thinks she is,

2) the one she would like us to believe,

3) the one the photographer believes it to be,

4) the one he uses to show off his art.

The crossing of these four imaginaries causes in her a feeling of inauthenticity.

The elements of photography 

Studium 

Among the photographs of which the author speaks, there are those in front of which Barthes experiences "an average affect", which he calls "studium" (Latin word). This cultural, political or social interest aims to identify the photographer's intentions. The spectator lives them according to his will: he can approve them or not, but he understands them, because as a consumer of culture, he is endowed with a kind of education ("knowledge and politeness"). But according to Barthes, culture is a contract between creators and consumers. Studium is something conventional, a sort of "vague, smooth, irresponsible" general interest. It makes it possible to find the photographer and to rehabilitate photography by giving it a function (to inform, to represent, to surprise, to make signify, to create envy).

Punctum 

The punctum is a Latin word which means the bite, the small hole, the small spot, the small cut, but also the throw of the dice. It is the chance which points in a photograph and which cannot be perceived by any analysis, which one does not manage to name. This is a detail that provokes strong emotion in the viewer, which attracts special attention, but which is not intended by the photographer. The punctum therefore constitutes a sort of subtle off-screen.

“Unary” photography 

A photograph may not have a punctum. In this case, it does not cause any trouble. It is a naive photograph, without intention and without calculation which can "cry", but not "hurt". Barthes calls this type of photography "a unary photograph  ".

Photography and death

In Camera Lucida, Barthes wonders a lot about the relationship between photography and death.

The photograph captures a moment when the person photographed is neither subject nor object. She feels herself becoming an object, she lives "a micro-experience of death". The person in the photo no longer belongs to himself, he becomes a photo object, which society is free to read, interpret, place according to its will.

The target of the photograph is necessarily real. The referent existed in front of the camera, but only for a brief moment, recorded by the lens. The object was therefore present, but it immediately becomes different, dissimilar from itself. Barthes concludes from this that the noema (the essence) of photography is “It-has-been”. The photograph captures the moment, immobilizes its referent, testifies that he "was" alive and therefore suggests (but does not necessarily say) that he is already dead.            

Photography brings a certainty of the existence of an object in front of the camera. This certainty prevents any interpretation and transformation of the object. The death given by photography is therefore "flat", because nothing can be added to it.

In photography, the concrete object is transformed into an abstract object, the real object into an unreal object. The target of a photograph is dead, but at the same time it is immortalized by the physical medium that is a photograph. However, this support, too, is sensitive to degradation.

The photograph "wise" and "crazy" 

According to Barthes, there are two types of photography: the “wise” and the “crazy”.

In “wise” photography, for the viewer, realism remains “relative, tempered by aesthetic and empirical habits”.

In “crazy” photography, realism is absolute, original. However, looking at “crazy” photographs, the viewer is confronted with what is dead or what will die. He experiences a feeling towards the object being looked at which Barthes qualifies first as "love" and then as "pity". The certainty that the being represented "has been" and, consequently, that he is no longer or that he will no longer be, drives him mad.

Photography and other arts of representation 

Photography borrows its frame and perspective from painting, but differs from it in that, in its representation, it always attests that its object "has been".

This is how it is also distinguished from language which is, by its nature, fictional.

As for its relationship with cinema, photography, unlike it, is characterized by the immobility of its referent. Time is stopped there in an "excessive and monstrous" way. Photography breaks with the continuity of the image, as we can see it in the cinema. In films, it is assumed that the experience will continue, while in photography, the object remains motionless, “protests its former existence” and clings to the viewer.

Finally, by the representation of death, photography approaches the primitive theater which was linked to the cult of death. In the original theater, the actors are both alive and dead at the same time (they put on make-up, wear masks).

Note that Barthes in Camera Lucida ignores sculpture.

Additional summaries and articles on Roland Barthes:

Death of the Author

Rehtoric of the Image

On Photography

Mythologies

Myth Today

Roland Barthes On Photography (Camera Lucida) - short summary and overview

on Photography (full name Camera Lucida Reflections on Photography)  is a book by literary and cultural critic Roland Barthes , published in 1980 . The book, along with the book of cultural critic Susan Sontag on photography , is considered one of the most important academic review books and photography theory. The book is also considered one of Roland Barthes' great achievements, both stylistically and conceptually.

In the book, Roland Barthes explores the essence of photography, and at the same time recalls his late mother through family photographs. The book focuses on the effect of photography on the viewer and deliberately ignores the photographer himself, the photographic action and the photographed object, which Barth Spectrum calls.

Through a personal discussion about the emotional experience that specific photographs create, Barth considers photography as a non-symbolic medium, which cannot be interpreted simply by codes in language and culture, as one that acts on both body and mind. The book develops two contrasting concepts that describe the experience of observing photography - studio and punctum: the studio indicates the cultural, linguistic and political interpretation that the observer makes, while the punctuation indicates a personal touch, a stab, that a particular detail in photography evokes in the relationship between the observer and the photograph.

Throughout the book, Barthes refers to famous photographs from the 19th and 20th centuries and analyzes them on a personal level, his level of experience. Barthe later refers to family photos of him and his mother. Sometimes the book is read as a personal diary rather than an aesthetic theoretical essay, and all this while in Barth's awareness of the duality that characterizes his writing.

If this was not enough here you can find a much more detailed summary of Camera Lucida by Barthes.

More by Roland Barthes: 

Death of the Author

Mythologies

Myth today

Rehtoric of the Image

The Photographic Message