punctum
We take photos of things to get them out of our heads...
franz kafka A lot of things have been written about photography and poetry. We have often mentioned essays such as John Berger's The Look of the Things in the balde. Susan Sontag's book Photography is another classic. In it, the US writer says that. This quote may be helpful for
understanding the nebulous area that poetry and photography create between them.
Before going to Paris, Roland Barthes spent his childhood in Baiona. He would later come back to Lapurdi every year during his holidays. After mentioning this Basque Label information which we Basques enjoy so much, we are going to tell you about another important event which we do not like that much. We are going to explain how this thinker, writer and teacher died. He did not live to see the publication famous book La Chambre Claire (Camera Lucida) in 1980. A few days before that a van ran him over and killed him in Écoles Street, opposite the Sorbonne. In the book, which is about photography, he developed the concepts of Studium and Punctum. Studium was how he described the universal meaning of photography. It was a way of describing the values which we all know and share. Punctum has a more personal meaning. When a photograph moves us and tells us something intimate and special. This can often be a small detail of the photo rather than its main subject. An object, a landscape, a symbol, somebody stroking a dog... In the same way that a flavour or smell can make us travel in our memories, a photo or a detail in a photo can take us to different places. It can bring to light things that were folded away in our minds. It can give meaning to what makes no sense. In the same way that somebody's childhood, scenery from our holidays or seeing death can give us intimate perspective and knowledge. Punctum, that place and moment in which poetry and photography come together. An unrepeatable moment beyond reality. A short moment of ecstasy. A specific meaning and a moment which has no need for any moment when you close your eyes to be able to see a photo properly.
franz kafka A lot of things have been written about photography and poetry. We have often mentioned essays such as John Berger's The Look of the Things in the balde. Susan Sontag's book Photography is another classic. In it, the US writer says that. This quote may be helpful for
understanding the nebulous area that poetry and photography create between them.
Before going to Paris, Roland Barthes spent his childhood in Baiona. He would later come back to Lapurdi every year during his holidays. After mentioning this Basque Label information which we Basques enjoy so much, we are going to tell you about another important event which we do not like that much. We are going to explain how this thinker, writer and teacher died. He did not live to see the publication famous book La Chambre Claire (Camera Lucida) in 1980. A few days before that a van ran him over and killed him in Écoles Street, opposite the Sorbonne. In the book, which is about photography, he developed the concepts of Studium and Punctum. Studium was how he described the universal meaning of photography. It was a way of describing the values which we all know and share. Punctum has a more personal meaning. When a photograph moves us and tells us something intimate and special. This can often be a small detail of the photo rather than its main subject. An object, a landscape, a symbol, somebody stroking a dog... In the same way that a flavour or smell can make us travel in our memories, a photo or a detail in a photo can take us to different places. It can bring to light things that were folded away in our minds. It can give meaning to what makes no sense. In the same way that somebody's childhood, scenery from our holidays or seeing death can give us intimate perspective and knowledge. Punctum, that place and moment in which poetry and photography come together. An unrepeatable moment beyond reality. A short moment of ecstasy. A specific meaning and a moment which has no need for any moment when you close your eyes to be able to see a photo properly.
