Punctum. I had to look that up. I've so often wondered if there was a word for the thing in an image that makes us stop scrolling. Sometimes it's hands drawn up in the coat. Sometimes is a barely noticeable but still very noticeable immodest show of skin. In the latter, the punctum is so often overplayed.
I read On Photography in college and it had exactly the effect you suggested. I put down my camera, as I couldn't reconcile how I used it to mediate my experience and the inherent "exploitation" of harvesting images from the world. I turned to printmaking, litho and intaglio, a way of making images whose content is mostly about the artifacts that the image making process creates. I soon returned to photography with an ethic of how the act of making a photograph is a joint contract of connection and consent, and how it can be expansive for both of us. That served me well in my long career as a commercial photographer, where the whole point is to create an image with a purpose and a function.
Some of it is in the framing to add a little tension. A lot of it is in letting things stay on set once discarded or leaving tags or creases in clothes. These are things I feel humanizes the image and creates an experience for the viewer.
Beautiful piece. I’m part of a Photography Studies club, and we just discussed Camera Lucia’s. Haven’t read it in over a decade. It was interesting to try to navigate the notion of punctum in a world where photography has evolved so drastically since when Barthes published his book. In many ways, it’s no longer applicable… the idea that punctum is only assigned to photography, and excluding video and other visual media… or how it applies to camera less or abstract work, for example. But it is worth pointing out that AI will never be able to produce punctum.
The current zeitgeist has damaged my head and all my thoughts now come out as haikus. My apologies, however, I posit that haikus are the punctum of life, thus: Provocative point
Why should photos have a punctum?, see at an Ansel Adams landscape and look for one. The full moon in Hernandez etc? Ha as you say. Where’s the studium in Moriyama? What about Barthes’ mother? Why to search for a hidden “punctum” in the hands of that boy? His attitude is what makes it, by other side a very common kind of attitude in that kind of kid
I hear you, but for me, no need to search, George. It is the thing that hits you in the gut before a more conscious reading even can even happen. It's a very personal thing. Very likely what his me in the picture of my son may make no difference to another viewer. The point is that it's what makes a resonant photograph distinctive from other mediums (in particular generative AI imagery) - possibly a useful concept these days.
Punctum. I had to look that up. I've so often wondered if there was a word for the thing in an image that makes us stop scrolling. Sometimes it's hands drawn up in the coat. Sometimes is a barely noticeable but still very noticeable immodest show of skin. In the latter, the punctum is so often overplayed.
I read On Photography in college and it had exactly the effect you suggested. I put down my camera, as I couldn't reconcile how I used it to mediate my experience and the inherent "exploitation" of harvesting images from the world. I turned to printmaking, litho and intaglio, a way of making images whose content is mostly about the artifacts that the image making process creates. I soon returned to photography with an ethic of how the act of making a photograph is a joint contract of connection and consent, and how it can be expansive for both of us. That served me well in my long career as a commercial photographer, where the whole point is to create an image with a purpose and a function.
Excellent read! Makes me look at my own work and the intentional flaws in a new light!!
Can you expand on the notion of “intentional flaws”?
Some of it is in the framing to add a little tension. A lot of it is in letting things stay on set once discarded or leaving tags or creases in clothes. These are things I feel humanizes the image and creates an experience for the viewer.
Beautiful piece. I’m part of a Photography Studies club, and we just discussed Camera Lucia’s. Haven’t read it in over a decade. It was interesting to try to navigate the notion of punctum in a world where photography has evolved so drastically since when Barthes published his book. In many ways, it’s no longer applicable… the idea that punctum is only assigned to photography, and excluding video and other visual media… or how it applies to camera less or abstract work, for example. But it is worth pointing out that AI will never be able to produce punctum.
Pardon my French, but fuckin’ awesome read. Almost like being back in Trachtenberg’s seminar. Thanks Andy and Peter.
The current zeitgeist has damaged my head and all my thoughts now come out as haikus. My apologies, however, I posit that haikus are the punctum of life, thus: Provocative point
A punctum as the center
AI as the void
Thank you for posting this. I am now fascinated by the concept of the "punctum."
Very well written. A thoughtful piece. And one that has promoted me to reconsider, in a positive way, my work as a photographer. Thank you.
All those philosophers (Benjamin, Barthes, Sontag etc) lesft an unbearable burden. Read them, yes. And also forget them
Ha
Why should photos have a punctum?, see at an Ansel Adams landscape and look for one. The full moon in Hernandez etc? Ha as you say. Where’s the studium in Moriyama? What about Barthes’ mother? Why to search for a hidden “punctum” in the hands of that boy? His attitude is what makes it, by other side a very common kind of attitude in that kind of kid
I hear you, but for me, no need to search, George. It is the thing that hits you in the gut before a more conscious reading even can even happen. It's a very personal thing. Very likely what his me in the picture of my son may make no difference to another viewer. The point is that it's what makes a resonant photograph distinctive from other mediums (in particular generative AI imagery) - possibly a useful concept these days.