What is a photograph? According to Roland Barthes, it "mechanically repeats what could never be reproduced existentially" (4). The photograph has no desire to change, transcend or tire of its own contingency.
Who am I when photographed? It's an interesting phenomenon that when the lens is upon a person, that person is no longer his or herself but a person merely imitating a person who does not exist. The subject may or may not be aware of this "pose" but Barthes likens the sensations to feelings of merely unauthentic to nightmarish. "A subject who feels he is becoming an object" (14).
Why does this photo touch me? The emotion or pity the spectator feels is called the "punctum" or "prick" and it is inarticulable in a linguistic sense. Barthes also calls this the "obtuse" (as opposed to "obvious") or "third" meanings.
Barthes makes in inevitable connection between a photograph and death with the photograph serving as the "proof" or to eulogize the subject. He makes the connection to his mother, citing a childhood photo of her where he feels he has "discovered" her. This image is not reproduced as Barthes assures us readers that the photo would be uninteresting to anyone but himself. The Winter Garden photo emanates a punctum to Barthes that no one else would capture. The photograph is a passage through time and a repetitive resurrection of the subject.
Image from page 50 - Lewis H. Hine, Idiot Children in an Institution, 1924
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