Week 4- Dominant, Oppositional, Negotiated

Dominant

Oppositional

Negotiated


I believe a Tableau once created continues to exist.  Barthes proclaims regarding the punctum in an image of his mother in the garden, "It exists only for me. For you it would be nothing but an indifferent picture, one of the thousand manifestations of the ordinary'  (Barthes, 1980 p.73)  While its true that the punctum there may exist particularly regarding his feelings for his mother, that doesn't necessarily negate another persons connection or ability to be pricked by the same image.  If it is a well done image, powerful or beautiful or even grotesque, once created I believe it continues to exist - even if translated differently based on individual experience.  Maybe your mother gardened, maybe you did, maybe you read poetry about gardens that affected your person, maybe you grew up in the country are passionate about your home, maybe you live in the city and it is what you recognize to have lost. Maybe there is just a feeling there and you don't even know why you connect to it yourself. If a photograph truly has punctum- I think that punctum is a powerful element that transfers based on individual experience and interpretation like a universal beauty we recognize, even if we are not sure why.

As photographers, are we willing to let this happen?  I agree with Olin's statement that "The most significant indexical power of the photograph may consequently not lie in the relation between the photograph and its subject, but in relation between the photograph and its beholder or user." (Olin 2012: 114).  The same can be true for the punctum.

However, at the same time I would say all images 'exist' only for us, each as an individual.  Every image we process is interpreted individually, for no one else has lived as we lived and existed as we exist.  All punctums therefore are universal AND unique simultaneously.

Because of this, I often fear the 'oppositional' reading by viewers.  Since I work with children, for me that may be views of exploitation or perversion.  While I want to allow for individual interpretation I feel protective of my images, and the children they represent.



Barthes, Roland. 1980. Camera Lucida London: Vintage
Olin, Margaret. 2002. Touching Photographs: Roland Barthes' "Mistaken" Identification in Representations No.80. Autumn, 2002: 99-118