Punctum v stadium - looking again at the final images

My tutor asks how does what Roland Barthes’s has to say about punctum vs stadium relate to the images in my project; in particular that image ‘Nearing Retirement’. An intriguing and very pertinent question that drove me back to Barthes’ work (2000) Camera Lucida  London: Vintage for a reread of his writing here.

I wanted to remind myself what Barthes had to say about how he was affected or not by the images that come under his gaze.

'Nearing Retirement '

First a definition of both:

Barthes distinguishes two elements in a photographic image- the studium- the factual content of the photograph which may ‘provoke only a general and so to speak, polite interest ‘(Barthes, 2000, p27) and the punctum. This he sees as breaking (or punctuating) the studium. He says ‘ This time it is not I who seek it out (as I invest the field of the studium with my sovereign consciousness), it is this element which rises from the scene, shoots out of it like an arrow and pierces me’. ( Barthes, 2000, p26).

‘A photograph’s punctum is that accident which pricks me (but also bruises me, is poignant to me)’. (Barthes, 2000, p.27). 

So I when I or another look at say the image ‘ Nearing Retirement’ what happens? For me there is a punctum as the flower itself is invested heavily with memories which come through my consciousness, in a sense ‘piercing’ it with a strong sense of connection to my Dad at a certain time of his life.

But I am the first to recognise that this may well not happen to any other observer as the punctum is going to be different for everyone – it may be there for some but not for others? So, you could, and maybe I do argue that you cannot consciously or deliberately create an image which contains both stadium and punctum. If this happens, it happens. Even if the observer can be headed in a certain direction by wording the caption in a more self- explanatory way, it still comes down to the reading of the image having a certain effect. In this case triggering memories held by the observer which I, as the photographer, are unaware.

So this particular image has a stadium but I think that only the observer can say whether it has a punctum. And this would apply to all the images in this project ……ideally they should have both elements and I conceived and composed them to achieve both for me as the observer. Self-indulgent you might say but again only other observers can really comment. And lastly, does the lack of a punctum detract  from enjoyment of the image critically or otherwise? 

References

Barthes,Roland. (2000) Camera Lucida. London: Vintage