A visual and theoretical research on art-photography and the notion of 'punctum'
Adriana Meinders
MA Fine Art, August 2007
€ 20,-
This magazine is the result of an 'ongoing' research, during the MA (Master) course of Fine Art, from September 2006 until August 2007 at the Art academy of Utrecht (HKU), www.mahku.nl. I can only admit that it's true what my teachers told me in the beginning of this program: 'Once you'll start, you'll never be finished'. Here I present a start of my research, which hopefully will give and make me work for years to research more and deeper, as well as in theoretical as in a visual way.
As a photographer I am as well a maker as a viewer of my own (and of course of others) photographs. Some you just 'like', but some photographs can really move you, touch you and make you look different to the world as a viewer. What's the thing in a photograph that moves me and other people as viewers? This question was the point of departure for my research.
Roland Barthes also struggled to understand the hold certain photos have on him and tried to find grip on 'the essence' of photography in his book Camera Lucida (1981). He posits two explanatory elements of photographical representation: the studium and the punctum. The studium refers to the way in which the subject matter of the photo appeals to him, based on a 'kind of human interest.' It represents familiar, names and ready-known knowledge. In the gaze guided by studium there are no blind spots and the picture is unmoving: 'The person it portrays do not move', 'they are drugged and pinned in place like butterflies'. The punctum, on the other hand, is a more complicated phenomenon: 'the element which rises from the scene, shoots out of it like an arrow, and pierces me.' It is a detail that arrests Barthes's attention: it disturbs him, it may defy his comprehension, and ultimately it wounds him. While the reaction to the studium is defined by an individual's taste as formed by his culture and education, the punctum is something even more specific: 'what I add to the photograph and what is nonetheless already there.' It's already there, 'but it only pricks or punctures a viewer who focuses on it. It 'captures the gaze, but does it in a way that is difficult to name or code'. It raises interest, pokes you in the eye. The inability to name causes anxiety.'
I am researching the current relevancy of the notion of punctum. I also tried to find and write towards the punctum in my own work, my personal punctum. Besides, I wanted to get grip on the personal punctum of others, by interviewing people. I am interested in the way curators and artists select their work. What are they looking for, and how do they deal with their 'subjectivity' and the preferences of others, when you are a curator or an autonomous artist? Because of my research methods like interviewing, making reviews of books and exhibitions, and showing images, I thought a photo-magazine would be the best way to present my thesis. This format fits my research, which is a fruitful combination of theory (text) and my visual work (photographs) and gives me the possibility to present my photos in a different way then hanging them on the wall. Another kind of selecting and presenting. Also for the readers and viewers, I think this will be an interesting way to read and see the result of my 'ongoing research'. A trip with co incidents, surprises, new insights and more questions. I enjoyed making this trip, I hope you will too and I hope you'll find your punctum! I am curious, let me know!