I found Hirsch and Barthe’s pieces to not only be intriguing but also very pertinent to our class discussions in the past week. Throughout his piece, Barthes discusses the depth that photography possesses as an art form. He states that photography is in opposition to cinema, because photography represents only one moment in time. He then continues to state that although photographs can represent the same isolated moment infinitely, they can never truly recreate that singular moment because a photograph is that moment’s referent just recreated later in time. Here Barthes is arguing that although we can look at a photograph and see an object, a person, or a place, it is not really that thing we are looking at, but rather just an image of that thing.
Barthes then puts photographs into context with history and starts the conversation about the importance photography holds within a historical event. This builds off of the notion that photos are meant to represent something, something that happened in a specific time and place in the past. He then states that “death is the eidos of photography” ( Barthes 15) which tells us that photos depict a non living, non present object that once existed in the past. This relates to history because history itself is the act of reliving events and people that have died, therefore photos are heavily related to history.
Hirsch takes Barthe’s points about photography and the family and discusses photos’ importance within family life. Just as nations have histories, families have histories as well and Hirsch brings to light how photos can bring back the past and connect us to the present. It is here that Hirsch comments on the notion that photos are everywhere, and they are accessible to the public and the private. She discusses how public and private histories are on display through photographs. Hirsch also discusses the operation of photographs, and how they function within our society. For example, “family photographs can reveal the operation of the familial gaze” (Hirsch 11) which can allow us to look deeper into our familial relationships and learn more about each other.
I enjoyed reading both of these readings right after each other because they not only widened my understanding of photography, but they also pointed my attention towards the areas in our society where photography has a deeper meaning. As a young adult in the 21st century, pictures are all around me whether I am on my phone, my computer, or just walking around school. They have become so mundane that we have begun to take them for granted and forgotten about their true meaning, if we ever knew what that meaning was in the first place. Barthes made me think about the deeper meaning of photography, and changed the way I will look at photos in the future.
One part of Barthes’ piece that I found particularly striking was his discussion on portraits. He states that posing for a photo can change the entire dynamic of a picture because it changes the meaning, the method of its’ production and the message that the subject wants to portray. I think that this is an important notion to keep in mind as I look at portraits in the future, because the message is changed when someone is getting their portrait taken. It is not just a normal photograph, but a formal introduction to that individual.