Notes on Love and Photography Author(s): Eduardo Cadava and Paola Corts-Rocca Reviewed work(s): Source: October, Vol.

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Noteson Loveand Photography*

EDUARDO CADAVAand PAOLA CORTES-ROCCA I When gaze meets love yours, seeboth my your gaze and your eyes, infascination and youreyes notonlyseeing also visible. are but And sincethey are in as visible or objects theworld) muchas seeing theorigin the (at (things of I touch withmy lashes them, world), couldprecisely finger, lips,or eveneyes, neartoyouin thisway, I one and lids,byapproaching - ifI daredcome you if dared. day - -Jacques On Derrida, Touching are hideand seek / desire only you.I desire you.. . . Where you?I am playing I ButI know willendupfinding and thewhole world be will with ghosts. you, we because chain of illuminations a lit because loveeach other, newly passes us. through - Andre Mad Love Breton, was To be on an islandinhabited artificial by phantasms themost insupportto one was thanbeing ableofnightmares;be in lovewith ofthese images worse the a we havewanted person loveto we in lovewith phantasm (perhaps always havea phantasmatic existence). - Adolfo The Inventionof Morel BioyCasares, whenhe writes Camera Lucida ? Does he think his Is RolandBarthes dreaming of he us mother day,orofthemother whom dreams of every (hetells at onepointthat day every or that knew didnotknow, and and saw heonly dreams hismother), ofthemother heboth of Is that didnotsee,orofthemother was never herself? hehaunted the by ruinofall thememoin writing this he to Or ries her book, every and always? of for day of that wished capture, the and thathelps to one technology thelight photographic bring bywhathappens, day,between when old in he a years - a photograph which claims of life photograph hismother shewasfive and which seeks "derive" photography? he to all Or to of faceheloved, from findthetruth the
* for like Hal and Buchloh their and Wewould to thank Foster Benjamin encouragement support, A research assistance. longer version thisessay of willappearin and RogerBellinforhis diligent on editedbyGeoffrey Batchen Doug Nickel, and and a of Lucida, Palinodes,collection essays Camera and for from Photography. forthcoming MITPress theCenter Creative
Ltd.and Massachusetts Institute Technology. 2006,pp. 3-34. 2006 October OCTOBER116, Spring Magazine, of

OCTOBER

elsebywhat all the and and happens, at once within movementhisthoughts writing, in of relation hisbody among to thework hisunconscious, ghostly the of experience photography, the and Barthes ofmusic, traumatic experiencesdeathand mourning, the of pangsoflove? dreams hisvision(offering something photography what calls "a us like he (and writes) itself: new the of as burns and conform hallucination"), fire a declaration lovethat, hesays, of of sumes a "floating " that, enables toexperience him him, him, him, flash blinding disorienting and touch and to hisfinitude; ifwelisten themuteness hismournful tothe ofhis of song, cry we hear writing, canperhaps him say: I approach as and but myself I wait you,today, love, forall time, I know for my with but is and cannot that, death, also inyour the I approach lost your life, self befound.In themidst thisloss, experience madness a single I the desire: to of of time in and the like time, that, theclick affect with secretly, thenight, with hope I the ofa camera, may livetoarchive music my foryou.I love yet of love you,I desire I live you,I wanttoseeand touch your body, cannot without and, you, with I even I evenbefore yourdeath, am no longer myself, though knowthat, and because my foryou,I already notmyself I have was death, your of love If been wounded your death ifit haspierced and struck - it is because me me by " thiswoundalready was "mine,already thesignature my was of love.Likethe I death been has addedtomy punctumaboutwhich soonwilltell you, life, your evenif, the italready there. longer was No alive,but from very beginning, simply notyet I in dead,at thethreshold life of and death, offer thisbook thehope you thatit can suspend and derange and that, time, love, confessing enduring my it I "the I see," wound, can transform corpus need"into"the my enduring body the I body touch. I is Lucida,its Photography mad, and, in the worldof Roland Barthes' Camera deliriumand danger are relatedto the experience of love,and, more particularly, to whathe calls the "pangs of love,""extremelove."1But whatis love,and in what us waydoes it pain us, pierce us, strikeus, and offer a glimpseof our mortality? Whatis its relationto death, mourning, What does love music,and photography? have to do withthe ruin,loss, and dissolutionof the self?What does it mean to love a photograph,and in what waydoes love mean nothingelse than loving a photograph (is it even possible to love something other than a photograph)? Whatis the relation,withinthe space of photography, betweenthe "observedsuband how does thisrelation,at least accordingto ject" and the "subjectobserving"
1. Camera Lucida: onPhotography, Richard trans. Howard(NewYork: and Farrar, Straus, Reflections to Giroux, translation this are tothis of text Inc.,1981),pp. 116,12.Allreferences theEnglish edition and will citedparentheticallyCL. Since, occasion, havemodified translation, also be as on we this we include references theoriginal to French in the can edition; thisinstance, then, secondcitation be in found La chambre Note la photographie Editions Seuil,1980), 179,28.Allreferclaire: sur du (Paris: pp. encestotheFrench edition given are the citation will cited CC. and be as following English

on and Notes Love Photography

a ofbothphotography love? and Thesearethe Barthes, require reconceptualization raised Barthes' but meditation photography on and by strange, moving questions mother. Barthes' carries signature a vigil text the of thedeathofhisbeloved that of is morethansimply experience mourning, an morethansimply surviving a teson in or one since, timony a meditation photography, as is legible nearly every of relatedto a mother itssentences, remains it who has died (perhaps amorously and evenmorethanonce),butis stillliving, notonlyin hismemory. Indeed,we the within logicofthebook,itis hismother's her couldevensaythat, survival, livindicates things that her that pass,that they changeand ingon, evenafter death, survival us tothink oftheimpossiasks becausethis not transform, minimally, and, of not but to ofa return lifebutoftheimpossibilitydying, lifeor death, life bility "life sureven moreprecisely, death."It is thisghostly and death,or perhaps, for vival as a metonym all such survivals thatdefinesthe madnessof the of that within medium photography, we simultathe sinceitis there, photograph, and the factof its the absence of the "observed subject" neously experience between and death,between life and therelation testimony "having-been-there," and the between selfand an other, amongthepast,thepresent, itsimpossibility, all the Within deliriousspace of photography, theseapparent and the future. in in to and are suspended ruined orderto be rethought relation the oppositions of downand shatters since of madness love"itself," theexperience lovealsobreaks the between others(including relation thesesameoppositions, many alongwith and absence,singularity repetition, and and exteriority, presence interiority and and necessity chance). This means,amongother and blindness, lucidity is mostessentially book on photography also,and perhaps thatthislittle things, disIt a texton love and eroticism. is Barthes'true"lover's and significantly, is to to and thisbecause,as he suggests, speakof photography always course," oflove. speak in few this reinforces point Barthes when, thefirst pagesofhisbook,he conhe the the that fesses whenhe looksat a photograph sees "only referent, desired he thebelovedbody"(CL, p. 7/CC,p. 19). It is precisely "love," explains, object, of that "extreme CC, love," enableshimto "erasetheweight theimage"{CL,p. 12/ to "invisible" p. 6/CC,p. 18), and thereby to makethe photograph (CL, p. 27), but his cleara pathforhimto see notthephotograph, the objectof his desire, and particuthe of it beloved's If, glance, wouldseemthat force love, body. at first the surface to enableshimto passthrough photographic of"extreme love," larly in medium orderto of to reachthereferent, exceedthelimits thephotographic it there be no lovewithout can Barthes soonmakes clearthat see hisbeloved, phoaxiomis love.But to statethischiasmic without and no photography tography is at since of the to merely articulate beginning a mystery, what really stakein this mean what of is context the possibility understanding "love"and "photography" his within text includhe terms mobilizes likeall theother since, here, especially and "music," "death,""mourning," "identity," even "punctum," ing "studium? to to "Barthemes" signalhis effort like to call theseterms "mother" would (we

OCTOBER

or to ize singular his use of them, makethem"his") thesetwowords concepts and can never understood of relation other words concepts. be outside their to without Like the lover the of whowishes address singularity his beloved to that recourse thelover's to a discourse inherits, he Barthes seeks invent language to wouldbe morefaithful what "perceives" be thesingular, and to he to paradoxical, 2 He to character photography. suggests in order submit the of to that, contradictory to of to adventure, surrender theunprecedented photographic experience photogwe wemust invent language which canapproach evenifweknow a with we it, raphy, never seizeor capture Likeall lovers, Barthesian therefore to it. the seeks lover may in namea world hasnever existed that his before eyes, ifhislanguage as might, yet itforth, touch for first it the time. as weknow from earlier his Indeed, analycalling sisofthelover's desires else moreand nothing thanto discourse, language nothing touch beloved's - andtheworld which exists. the in it body In thesameway thatthelover's wishes approach to and touchhis language Barthes its desires approach touch to and to touch essence, beloved, photography: to touchon whatdifferentiatesfrom othermodesof representation. the In it in formulaofhistext, confesses, a wonderfully he opening paragraph ambiguous tion thatsignalsboth photography's relation with and singularity its intimate "I I cinema: decidedI likedPhotography oppositiontheCinema, in from which to nonetheless failedto separate Thisquestion it. I insistent.wasovercome by grew an 'ontological' was desire:I wantedto learnat all costswhatPhotography 'in of essential feature wasto be distinguished thecommunity it from itself,' what by Overwhelmed desire, writer the seeksto dis(CL,p. 3/CC,pp. 13-14). images" by coverthe "ontology" photography, rather that of for thanlooking concepts but, and withwhichwe might elements might distinguish definethe fundamental determine he that photography's singularity, suggests therecan be no reflection on photography does notbeginwiththe revision thewords concepts that or of with which speakand think we aboutimages, through and which lookat them. we Barthes "his" or and reinforces factthathis "Barthemes," words conthe signals otherthanwhatwe usually wouldexpectthemto cepts,designate something meanthrough seriesof typographical a of the strategies, including capitalization and use Giventhewayin marks.3 terms, italicization, the strategic of quotation which each Bartheme condenses encryptsseries associations prevent a that and of it from of self-identical itself, could evensaythatitscondition to we remaining can be of a semantic content. possibility only theimpossibilityitsever having fixed
not and Barthes only invents setofLatinate a but marks remarks 2. neologisms he alsoceaselessly evenfamiliar in has terms sucha way in what from that, eachinstance, break they generally been away - an conceived meant them. choosesLatinas the"mother or He of by tongue" photography archaic to a a dead language evoke technology around to a language describe modern technology, organized death becausemodernity only understood relation thepastfrom in it For can be to which emerges. in an excellent discussion this of see on to point, ElissaMarder, "Nothing Say:Fragments theMother theAgeofMechanical Createur no. 1 (Spring 40, 2000),esp.pp.28-30. Reproduction," L'Esprit - his 3. in on Barthes' stylistic strategies use ofcapitalization, particularhavebeen commented The Roland Barthes: the accountis provided Andrew Brown, extensively. Perhaps mostelaborate by Clarendon Press, (Oxford: 1992), Figures Writing of esp.chaps.1 and2.

on and Notes Love Photography

marks thispassage, aroundthe uses Barthes Thisis why (in frequently quotation that word, "in the and word"ontological" thephrase itself);they name,or signal but themis neversimply monosemic, rather likethe conceptenclosedwithin of the as into whose spaceannounces "advent" himself entry photographic subject else. the of in an other is always theprocess becoming something As is so often its of eachelement hiswriting itstypographical casewith eccentricities, Barthes, its its and rhythm movement, echolaliaand repetitions, dictionand distributo he to what wishes convey. tion works enact words and and whose whosemovement circulation, a creates text IfBarthes in instance is becausehe wants it and drift, this names, embody enactitssemantic is love thatwhatmakeslove and photography and photography that to suggest the everremain same. or amorous photographic nor their neither subjects they textis an before This means,amongotherthings, else, that, anything Barthes' of in zone" foranytheory photography of on assault the constitution a "safety borders that wouldseparate, strict to it which wouldbe possible delineate define, for that the and establish elements wouldbe indispensable thinking photography to essential anyreflection that havebecomethemost thewords "initself." Among than"subject," set no is there perhaps moreimportant of terms on photography that and a invents heretical Barthes and "reference." questions language "image," of and the in order destabilize unity integrity each to this redefines "Holy Trinity" of forms of and in of ofitsterms towork favor processes notpositions, multiple to to that and notunities wouldbe identical themselvesand therefore becoming one the between Dissolving distinction altogether. photography reconceptualize couldbe saidto belongto in that Lucida Camera and term another, proceeds a way in of a of theexperience love;it proposes theory photographic becoming which in is the photograph a forceof transformation:whichmodelsbecomeimages, becomephotographs. and becomesubjects, subjects images to itis and this Within logicoftransformation metamorphosis, impossible susbetween represented the The we tainthe abstraction call "reference." relation does notpresuppose and reference image, between objectand itsrepresentation, or remainoutside,the process an objectwhosebeingand existence precede, that Barthes On an it which becomes image. thecontrary, suggests photothrough - makesabsolutely of "literal"whatis at theheart stages representation graphic of into the and thisis precisely putting crisis a temporal modern representation, What its and later representation. stands is first in order which there an object then - an object subject gives toa porthat or of infront thephotographic way apparatus "onceI feel click. Barthes As the before camera's trait does not"exist" explains, in theprocess of I constitute observed thelens, myself everything changes: by myself in I formyself,transform makeanother I instantaneously myself body 'posing,' is not transformation intoan image"(CL, p. 10/ p. 25). This"active" advance CQ in like to himself thecamera, somesacrificial whooffers thatofsomeone victim, that whatmakes whoknows thatof someone but orderto be reproduced, rather "himself is ever him he himwhat "is" and therefore simply prevents from being

OCTOBER

themultiplicity inhabits does that "him." thesameway In that being an object the of notexist before representation, alsois never single, its there a homogeneous object that evenbefore is placedin front thecamera coincides it itself. What of with Barthes and rigorous is nothing here,in an extremely manner, engages systematic lessthanwhat the of reflections photograon produces difficultyall contemporary theabsence thesubject. as he suggestsand herelieshisstrength of and But, phy: - thisabsencedoes notresult or effacement, on from but, courage disappearance thecontrary, multiplication proliferation.he puts from and As it, in front thelens,I am at thesametime:theone I think am,the of I one I want others think am,theone thephotographer to I I thinks am, and the one he makesuse of to exhibithis art. In otherwords, a I action: do notstopimitating and each strange myself, becauseofthis, timeI am (or let myself photographed,invariably I suffer from a be) sensation inauthenticity, of of to sometimes imposture (comparable certain {CL, nightmares). p. 13/CC,pp. 29-30) - and theportrait itsgenre excellence - constitutesradical as a and Photography par absolutedestabilization the Cartesian of to subject, night"comparable certain and not unlikethe one advancedbypsychoanalysis, which"I think in mares," I where am not,therefoream where do notthink."4 psychoanalysis, I I Like phoshatters subject reason a subjectthatwouldbe complete the of and tography coincidental withitself byintroducing plurality is not producedbythe a that force and but desire, byaffects thegaze: "I see,I feel, metonymic ofunconscious henceI notice, observe, I think" I and I me {CL,p. 21/CC, 42). It tells that do p. notexist before image that exist I as or, my only an image, moreprecisely, only as a seriesofimages, none ofwhich everone. It redeems from immoare me the of me is the in and bility a "self and tells that I that reproduced each newimage, in every of is evenone at themoment which in it copy each oftheseimages, never the "I Barthes "other of notes, posesbefore camera. onlyresemble," photographs and no but real myself, thisto infinity: one is everanything thecopyofa copy, or mental" actthat wouldpreCC, {CL,p. 102/ p. 159).Undoing every contemplative sumea distance between "itselfand theimageon which focuses, it Camera Lucida of ofa process that putsthecategory an observer as theneutral subject presumoccurs outside - intocrisis. him ably The provocative statement "a photograph always that is invisible" {CL, p. to it to to 6/CC, 18)- becauseitis possible passthrough in order movedirectly p. the referentshouldbe read notas a meansof devalorizing overcoming or the of historical sociological and materiality the image,but as a wayof contesting and of If from very the claims, readings understandings theimage. Barthes beginalone and disarmed" {CL, p. 7/CC,p. 20), it is ning,thathe is "'scientifically'
4. of in in A trans. Alan JacquesLacan,"Agency the Letter the Unconscious," Ecrits: Selection, Sheridan York: W.Norton Co., 1977), 166. W. and (New p.

on and Notes Love Photography

himself someone as sheltered protected a and to becausehe refuses imagine who, by in and distance, critical, historical, even, theend,an affective rigorously sociological, a The I whospeaks Camera in Lucida and completely analyzes photographic corpus. that a series photographs he holdsin hishands of without imagining contemplates of or has him: theconon witness a relation bondthat excluded that is a neutral he that the also him. adherence binds imageto itsreferent includes the trary, singular the of difference between Thisiswhy, from far reinforcing assumption an ontological - of - the of and thesubjectivity "humanity" theobserver thematerialitythechemiforms photograph, a Camera Lucida works destabilize to that cal paperormetal plate an becomes subject thesubject a and becomes image. this frontier: image the They a orintimacy, reveals in areboundtogether a relation acquiring certain that, privacy the and between subject thephotograph one:theencounter itself be an amorous to the the thatsubjectivizes image(that"anihe holdsin hishandsproduces spark his illuminates ownphotographic mates" andthat it) being.5 simultaneously the at therethanto science, actoflooking a photograph Closerto pleasure a between subjectand an image,but rather foredoes not differentiate brings and thatof the subject thatof the observed "twoexperiences: subject together also the (CL, observing" p. 10/CQ p. 24). To lookat a photograph is to recognize that to a of dimension my"self," identify particularity seizesmy photographic a that or am, gaze,to register acknowledge I already and in advance, kindofphohe in theearly ofhistext, can take as Thisiswhy, Barthes pages suggests tograph.6
the "adventure" p. 19/ and what this 5. Within amorous CC, relation, evokes attracts gazeiscalled ( CL, - "contingency, to is adventurelinked particularity the adventure, photographic singularip. 38).Likeany in Lucida andtotheadventurer's confrontation a adventure" p. 20/ p. 40) form series Camera CC, (CL, ty, the of adventure the Like with other. all adventure, photographic the implies risk an "internal agitation, wants be spoken" CL,p. to of which a certain an excitement, too, labor, thepressure theunspeakable ( a of and into and breaks thesubject produces kind agitation the 19/ p. 37). Likemusic, photograph CC, the and of that (andofallrisk) transforms subject thereby interruption - andhereis theeffect therisk sudThis when Barthes "himself." iswhy, him desert, that, suggests "Inthis glum remaining prevents from it" reaches itanimates andI animate (CL,p. 20/ p. 39),he implies a CC, me, me; denly specific photograph an his but risk that the that adventurer's is never oflosing life, ofpassing that, through experience at the risk at an life. him he "animates" gives thelife didnothave, other Butthis isalso, the him, edgeofdeath, what makes photographic a of trivial. iswhy This and sametime, liketheadventure love, experience very to this into of feat works transform triviality a is the an adventureprecisely enactment an incredible that that in and of can in the field which power adventure unfold unexpected transformative To say there ways. can other that without adventure can be no photography means, things, there be no adventure among we name the for This and a of withoutforce animation transformation. iswhy, might love(as another say, the ontoa that a means: adventure, animation,transformation displaces lover adventure) photographic the nor observhe neither norhisbeloved one new terrain, inwhich (neither observed subject thesubject their were who ing)canremain they "before" encounter. For of the Thisis why very 6. possibility lovedependson our beingable to lovea photograph. an is to Barthes, love a photograph to experience"an internal (CL, p. agitation, excitement" be or cannot spoken known, to take"into and the of 19/CC, 37), toexperience adventure what my p. is is is what dead,what goingto die" (CL,p. 117 arms /CC,p. 179).To lovea photograph to embrace in to and and a of to of themortality theother, experience kind madness, tofind loseoneself relation of the as and thebeloved, insidethebeloved, has,liketheviewer a photosince, we know, beloved To the the a of internalizedtrace thelover, lover's then, "prick," lover's punctum. lovean other, graph, meansto lovea photographto lovewhat, to loveanother us, us, wounding piercing living person, us. or as other than be andentering canno longer thought experienced entirely us,

10

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"himself a "mediator all Photography," why can become"themeaas for and he sure of photographic 8-9/CC,p. 22). This also is why 'knowledge'"(CL, pp. or are representation testimony neverinnocent:the camerais neverhere or therein orderto register and how "reality," theimagedoes notexistto confirm it differentis from Instead, us. Barthes thattheessenceofphotography suggests lies in its affirmation becoming. of names (without Photography naming)the itself whatit "is"in orderto transform process whereby something stopsbeing into"something else."It "represents very to tellthe that subtlemoment when, I nor whofeelshe is becoming an truth, am neither subject objectbuta subject I thenexperience micro-version death (of parenthesis): am truly a of I object: a and life (CL, p. 14/CC,p. 30). Between and death,subject becoming specter" and image,in a kindof parenthesis, specter am becoming I the object,subject declares thatthe onlyimageor subject thatcould really an imageor subject be wouldbe theone thatshows impossibility,disappearance destruction, its its and itsruin. To lookat a photograph the therefore meansto contemplate singular adherence thattransforms intoan imageand whattheimagedemonstrates me me to at all) aboutwhat meanstobe a photographic it (without demonstrating anything The relation between objectand itsimage, the subject. amongtheimage-object, theobject-image, my of and gaze,links to theadventure experiencing phome the as a mirror thatreturns to myownimage.As Barthes me tographic fragment "I of and explains, am thereference every my photograph, thisis what generates astonishmentaddressing in to thefundamental I myself question: is itthat am why alivehere now?" p. 84/CC,p. 131).In other and words, am I nottherein (CL, why thefragment paperthat holdin my of I handor in theplacein which photothe am in in the graphwastaken? Why I nottherethen, themoment which clickof theshutter heard,in the precise was in instant which whattheimageshows me wastransformed thisimage?If photography "thecunning into is of dissociation consciousness from itis notonly becausephotog(CL, identity" p. 12/CC,p. 28), a in of but a raphy signals crisis theidentity thesubject also becauseitintroduces mediation breakintothevery and interior theconcept identity. of of Within the that self-identicalmyself, that to and photographic space,I "discover" I am never there no object, act,no instant evercoincides is no that with "itself." time Each we holdan imagein ourhands, magic photography the of returns repeat to itself and thephotographed thephotographic and encounter themselves apparatus againas ifforthevery time, partbecausetheobserver, first in haunted constituted and by this earlier is a encounter, himself photographic apparatus. Photography prevents us from everrecognizing or thatidentityours,butalso thatofsomeoneor this else- because "photography" the name of the destruction any is of something consciousness identity. of This law of bothlove and photographya law thatinterrupts identity by - belongs what itwith signofdifference transformation the and to makes marking Barthes' meditation loveand photography radically on so a provocative: against

on and Notes Love Photography

11

to lies sense thatphotography's signature in its capacity fixand preserve to - whatis before camera, mobilizes network associations a of he the arrest that, or and the seek and practically textually, to disorganize destabilize opposition difand and movement, suchas stasis between ference terms, preservation opposing of That work disand and and survival death, memory mourning. this destruction, of of is to and organization destabilization shown be at theheart theexperience of else wouldhaveit,loveis nothing thana process disorganizalove as Barthes and as to we tionand destabilizationis what are meant trace, ifweweretracing like the thread and to which, the listening a kindofsecret, as we follow Ariadne's as of Garden Winter brings together photography, Photograph hismother a child, and death. love, II for an Whatwouldit mean to formulate ontology photographyforthis is to medium that, singuonly according Barthes, characterized by"contingency, this Lucida adventure" p. 20/CC,p. 40)? Camera (CL, openswith ontological larity, to devoted desire advances, and,as thetext way ontology gives to a spaceentirely Barthes in desire:"I wasinterested Photography for'sentimental' reasons," only it to "I (CL,p. (a writes, wanted explore notas a question theme)butas a wound" to as is 21/CC,p. 42). Ifphotographynotto be thought a theme(or as a question to be it an answer), is becauseitcannot reduced a theme; we which might provide of the "unclassifiable" p. 4/CC,p. 15),itwounds very itis because, (CL, possibility the This of or of theme and,in particular, thetheme concept photography. is why attentive a this mobilized and require reading throughout text language concepts his at he towhat calls, theend ofthefirst ofthebook,his"palinode," retracpart manner. in to tionofhisdesire nameor conceptualize photography a determinate a that evensaythatthispalinode as a modeofassertion countersigns We might It is from kindofwithdrawal what beingasserted is one ofthetext's signatures. in in the that of to belongs an effort conceptualization moves text one direction a to risk relaof in search a language the later follow reverse to order willing path a tion to "affect," languagethat,as he putsit,can only"speakof desireor of in of words, Lucida, other (CL, p. mourning" p. 21/CC, 41). The entirety Camera of character with commensurate theparadoxical a language by proceeds seeking for thatis guidedand interrupted thedesire the thephotographa language by to remains be mourned: lost,and nevercomprehended, that, always thing very itself. photography makesbetweenthe photograph's that distinction Barthes The notorious of the and studiuma distinction as wewill is only simulacrum a see, that, punctum different remain at the same time,thesetwoterms distinction (even if, always cominstance this of each other) appearsto be theexemplary from paradoxical As withdesireor mourning. he wouldhave it at leastinitially the promise refers a classical to "it and is studium a fieldof predictability repetition: always

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of of itis "I as body information"; what perceive quitefamiliarlya consequence my a It constitutes "figures") totalculture" (or (CL, p. 25/CC,p. 47). knowledge, my that refers something precedesthe image:the intention to that itythatalways thephotograph's whether is generated thephotogit by might govern production, is the or in Thisfield scanned rapher, technology, theobjectcaptured theimage. from the thedetailthat is Barthes callsthepunctum, which claims excluded he by - thatis,in of field intentions, thestrongest in senseoftheterm "intentionality" terms a subject's of expression butalso in thesenseofwhatthisor that of will to can or subject or wishes say."Certain photographic technology photographed details he writes, they not,itis doubtless "If do becausethephome,'" may'prick has (CL, tographer putthemthereintentionally" p. 27/CC,p. 49). The punctum therefore but what counts theartofthephotographer, also from as escapesfrom what could call the artof the photographic we or of the object the technique theexhibiofthepresent theprecision technical of moment, capturing processes, tionofrarities precisely which Barthes seeks is becausepunctum thenamewith to designate me (but what cannot seenin advance, "that accident which be pricks as also bruises is poignant me" (CL,p. 47/CC,p. 79). Defined a detailthat to me, the butalso as a woundthat thestudium, cutsor pricks that fascinates, interrupts and the corporealgaze thatwouldviewit, the punctum pointsdirectly image evokes toward affective openedbyimages a field that that field enjoyment always as bothpleasurable wounding. and Ifthestudium of wouldseemto be on thesideoflegibility, effect a "certhe taintraining" or "education" (CL, p. 26/CC,p. 48) (CL, p. 28/CC,p. 51), ifit evokesthe rangeof cultural whichwe maydraw and historical contexts from information enablesus to engagea photograph that (evenifonlyin a general thepunctumwhat is disturbs legibility, punctures strikes this what or way), through the surface reproduction: arisesfrom scene,shootsout of it likean of "it the and piercesme"; it "disturbs" studium the arrow, (CL, pp. 26-27/CC, p. 49). with ghostly the force thesupplement, punctum of the Emerging appearsas a kind of transit relay or between photograph theviewer the and its that,despite vionevertheless can be drawninto a network of lence, despite its singularity, associations. Like the languagethatmovesin relationto affect, relationto in desireand mourning, punctum the in works relation the studium. Derrida to As in theelegy wrote he after death, explains shortly Barthes' as soon as the punctum ceases to oppose the studium, the while all to it,as soonas wecan no longer remaining heterogeneous distinguish herebetween places, two or it contents, things, is notentirely subjugated to a concept, by"concept" meana predicative if we determination thatis distinct opposable. and Thisconcept a ghost scarcely of is grasin itsselfas theghost a concept. of Neither nordeath,but life pable thehaunting theone bytheother. of

Notes Love Photography on and

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he of as "The Versus' theconceptual opposition," adds,"isas unsubstantial a camera'sclick."7 If at first studium glanceit wouldseemthatthepunctum/ couplenamesthe a or canonand itsinterruption between between cultural historical or opposition is and seemsto be supwhat predictable what irreducibly is singular a claimthat that"the studium ultimately is coded, the always portedbyBarthes'assertion that this is not"{CL, p. 51/CC,p. 84)- theparenthesis follows assertion punctum I dissolves pureantagonism this in "(I trust am notusingthesewords abusively)" not and between orderto complicate reformulate onlytheopposition singularity and detailand totality, alsobetween but and predictability, contingency repetition, In Camera the studium and Lucida, punctum/ couple intentionality nonintentionality. of does notspeakto us ofantagonistic elements, twoforces opposedto one other, it to and identical themselves; rather, namesthe "co-presence" p. 42/CC,p. {CL, - oftwoforces transforin 72)- in thehereand nowofthespaceofevery image eachother, without coinciding one ever with that two mation, streams tendtoward a of if names kind education, andcivilThis another. iswhy, thestudium knowledge, an it of a effect, does so in theform a interest, average itythatproduces general cannot simulacrum. (aimat a generality) signify except assuming by "Photography notes relation a portrait in to taken a mask" {CL,p. 34/CC,pp. 60-61),Barthes by that an imposture,fiction generality a of The studium Avedon. Richard designates the are "Thisiswhy great of taketheform a myth. can only photographers portrait thatthey are 34/CC,p. 60-61), he adds,explaining {CL, greatmythologists" p. of mark peculiarity) a gesture act or a (an capableofcapturing face(theabsolute it the or and ofpurecontingency) presenting as ifitwere faceofa race,a nation, a is of but that in class. Indeed, thesameway generalitynothing a masquerade genera within image, spaceofabsolute to it any transgression. ality, is impossible posit, an seeksa radicaldifference, objectcapableof interamorous Barthes' language and it of the captures rupting terrain thealways-the-same, itfinds in thedetailthat But to itsgaze and thathe callsthepunctum. just as chancebelongs theamorous its or is the beingpurecontingency puresingularity: repetition, punctumfarfrom of in each imageadoptstheform a rule"plausible enough" regular appearance in as {CL, p. 25/CC,p. 47) thatit can be systematized one of the two"themes {CL, Photography" p. 27/CC,p. 49). between differand this bothpreserves dissolves opposition That Barthes character the of that enceand repetition, he seekstohaveitenacttheparadoxical if in it evenmorelegible we tracetheway which is mobiis perhaps photograph, in morecarefully. example, is legible For it a his lizedwithin text little when, the Garden "I the he admits: gave in he moment which confronts Winter Photograph, Thus my myself to the Image,to the Image-Repertoire. I could understand up I escapedfrom In theMother, it. understood invincibly buthaving it, generality;
Brault Michael and "The DeathsofRolandBarthes," trans. Pascale-Anne 7. SeeJacques Derrida, Brault and MichaelNaas (Chicago:University of ed. Naas,in TheWork Mourning, Pascale-Anne of Press, 2001),p. 41. Chicago

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therewas a radiant,irreduciblecore: mymother"(CL, p. 75/CC, p. 117). that with of she (before Registering hisengagement thisphotograph hismother was his mother)is informed and shaped by the Image-Repertoire (perhaps another namefor studium), nonetheless the he his that suggests what distinguishes from suffering anotherpersonin similar the of what circumstances, suffering evenincreases is thefact thathe has spenthiswholelifewith and that her his it, from shewas"(CL,p. 75/CC, 117).Precisely orderto who in suffering "proceeds p. articulate maintain particularityhismourning, and the of Barthes confesses that, "likethe Proustian Narrator his grandmother's at death: 'I did not insist only but the for origiof suffering'; this uponsuffering, uponrespecting originality my was of was in lost irreducible her, and thereby nality thereflection what absolutely forever" p. 75/CC, 117-18).Buthowis itpossible believe theorigiin to (CL, pp. of if tells of nality Barthes' suffering he himself us thatit is "like"the suffering Proust after deathofhisgrandmother? can we believe theoriginality the How in of someonewhois not an unprecedented in figure his lifebuta personwhois in thelifeofothers, figure a as In almost archetypal themother? sigas repeated thewords another, of Barthes the paradoxical nalingoriginality through stages character mourning. of he the that experiwe Effectively,suggests, pain or grief ence before lossis always a we each timethat lose someone, go we contradictory: at leaststructurally ifnotin every thesameseries (even detail),exactly through, of experiences someonewho has suffered similar as a loss:we surrender the to samerituals, reproduce samesetof sentences formulas. thesame we the and At and likeeveryone thatour suffering entirely is time, else,we think unique.And we are notwrong what repeated is each timethat we here, because, paradoxically, fallin loveor that lose someoneis precisely radicaloriginality loveor we the of loss.Photography, loveor death,is the experience the singularity is like of that or oftherepetition appearsas something that repeated singular.8 This structural relationbetweensingularity repetition and reappearsin another form within Barthes' discussion thepunctum/ of studium couple.The punctum studium notbelongentirely theimageor to themodeofperceiving and do to it they neither are of of onlyattributes the imagenor onlya projection the - butrather points connection are of between history theimageand the of gaze thehistory thegaze.Thisis why of Barthes saythat punctum"what add can the is I to the photograph and what nonetheless is there" p. 55/CC, p. 89). (CL, already Between what add"and what already "I "is between what there," moreprecisely, or, "I add"andwhat "was there always temporal is a there," already dissymmetry: every is a behindor a little ahead.Thisis why the imageis likea clockthat always little truepunctum sometimes comes a littlelater.There is "[n]othingsurprising,"
8. As a means visualizing paradox, front of this the cover theSpanish of edition Camera of Lucida an of camera a machine reminds ofthedaguerrotype ofa certhat us or presents image an antique - in theprocess copying taking photograph. camera there, the tainauratic moment of or a The is in center thecover, of between large two marks like or that, citation, mourning, photoglove, quotation its raphy, infinitely reproduce originality.

and Notes Love Photography on

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"if its the shouldbe revealed Barthes admits, sometimes, despite clarity, punctum is in of the whenthephotograph no longer front me and I think after fact, only I know better photographremembered a a I than that may backon it.It happens visionorientedits languagewrongly, I photograph am lookingat, as if direct which always itspoint effect, will miss of the of it engaging in an effort description is (CL, every experience photographic punctum' p. 53/CC,p. 87). As he suggests, is into not of an always experience thepast,ofwhat converted an experience, in clickor ofthegaze,but not of thepresent theliving, in thenowofthecamera's to takenbyVan in when as happens Barthes' later, response thefamily portrait of in he der Zee, which analyzes hisdiscussion thepunctumthisor thatphotome" within (CL, whenithas,as he putsit,"worked to continues haunt him, graph in first of 53/CC,p. 87). Readingthisportrait a blackfamily 1926,and after p. of as itspunctum thebeltand thenas the"strapped pumps" thestanding identifying she was that "realpunctum thenecklace waswearthe claims he black woman, later ribbonofbraidedgold) for(no doubt)itwasthissamenecklace(a slender ing; and once she died, I which had seenworn someonein myownfamily, which, by never marsister my of father box shut remained up in a family ofoldjewelry (this been saddened as ried,livedwithher mother an old maid,and I had always of I wheneverthought herdreary life)"(CL,p. 53/CC,pp. 87-88).Thathe identiand that a series associations displacements evokehis of this fies punctum through and within language, culture, a famila a and hisaffections, hisinscription history, in relationto thatprecedehim,meansthatthe punctum ial network emerges if this detailmoves If of elements thestudium.this him, he registers parparticular in history, is inhim, somewhere his wound it ticular wound, is becausethis already It and manner. is becausethiswound evenifin a displaced, encrypted, illegible flash"(CL, p. 94/CC,p. like a after periodof latency, an "unexpected appears, this and his Moreover, sequenceof associa148),within psychic bodily memory. from the the tionsand displacementsfrom beltto thepumpsto the necklace, in of the to of necklace theblackwoman thenecklace hisaunt,from photograph the from family's his and from sadfront himto an earlier of history, photograph within another enacts one nessor deathsealedwithin imageto thatinscribed had the that with punctum p. of the"power expansion" he already associated ( CL, in in the In otherwords, punctum, all itssingularity, itsabsolute 45/CC,p. 74). of and an that, irreducibility, encrypts entirenetwork substitutions composing itfrom it ever everbeingwhat is,from itat thesametime, prevent decomposing howthis to Whatmakes seriesofsubstitutions possible, beingself-identicalitself. here is time"itself," itis no accident and is ever and Barthes entirely rigorous most with accident contingencythepuncand he the that term associates closely tum is anotherwordfortime.Indeed, as he tellsus, "thereexistsanother which no is thanthe 'detail.'This newpunctum, (another 'stigmatum') punctum is of the noeme but of form of intensity, Time,the lacerating emphasis longer itspurerepresentation" p. 96/CC,p. 148). If timelacerates (CL, (Hhat-has-been), the this also interrupts of the surface the photograph, woundedphotograph

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movement time,in a manner of thathas,not the form time, rather of but the form time's of theform an "intense of 49/CC,p. (CL, interruption, immobility" p. It the of and This 81), ofan explosion. wounds form time, intensely irrecuperably. disorder introduced thephotograph is since from very the however, by beginning, is in moment whichit was taken,a every photograph marked the singular by moment or because it is not that,because it cannotbe reproduced repeated, in redeemable thepresent, inhabits present a kindofghost. the like Thisis why in "thereturn thedead" (CL,p. 9/CC, 23),a return of every photograph signals p. which photographed the is becomesa "Total-Image, which to say, Death in person"(CL,p. 14/CC, 31). p. The photograph therefore does not onlylook backward it does not only evokelosttimeand melancholybutit also opensontoa future: is in fact it distoward future. Barthes the As the metonymic forceof the detail notes, placed to (CL, p. 59/CC,p. 93). This opens the photograph "a kindof subtlebeyond" is nota spatial or a crossing thelimits codified or of of beyond beyond knowledge cultural itis a "blind comfield" a beyond sentiments; that, (CL,p. 57/CC,p. 91), is to remain blind.It is we posedoftime, likethefuture, something which always thefield thepossible, what, of of within photograph, the cannot saidto be simbe hereand now, rather but likea promise, relation thepastand to in to evoked, ply an unknown future which still come,buthas,as itshorizon, future to death. is our Thisis why, bound together the copyand itsnegative, punctum the like and the studium thetwofictional are to each polesofphotography: imagepretends reach thembutnever succeeds. Punctum studium the twothreads and are that, entirely constitute materiality photographic the of together, language:contingency, and on chance, gratuitousness, singularity, difference, theone hand,and necessity, and repetition, the other. thisway, In on predictability, composition, regularity, not onlyshowswhatit exhibits not onlyshowsa relation every photograph between observed an and on subject a subject observing captured a pieceofphoto- but also says,exhibits,or performs whatphotography is. graphic paper is an amorousexperience, and paradoxical: objective an Photography magical a "the of chance, necessary (CL, gratuitousness, tireless repetition contingency" p. 5/CC,p.17). Ill There is something in uncanny every photograph a forceof destabilizathat leavesus in suspense evenas itfascinates Thisperhaps us. is tion, something whenwe lookat an image, encounter, we in of because, directly front us,and no matter howelusiveit mayremain, first the signof chance and contingency what Barthes callsthepunctumand,likeall encounters contingency, with again, thisone also produces certain a terror bedazzlement. perhaps is someand But it else altogether: distances itself from civilized all and thing perhaps photography and becausewhat we sympathetic contemplation directly interrogates enjoyment

on and Notes Love Photography

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relation a photograph that mainwe when lookat an imageis thepeculiar notice the Within photographic the before camera. was with what (butis no longer) tains enables an experienceof pleasure worldof Camera Lucida,the photograph and even of the becauseitpromises possibility ourbeingable to conjure, perhaps lost Evenifthereferent is of remainder thereferent's body. the to touch, material wounds evenif, absenceor deathis what or living and this no longer us, present a without certain is as Barthesreminds thiswounding neverexperienced us, makes a to ofpleasure thetraceofits"having-been-there" belongs what degree of the This a photograph. iswhy photograph always appearsas a form photograph traceofthepast,condenses, a which, amongso many evoking material haunting the the between pastand thepresent, dead and thelivtherelation other things, and and destruction survival. ing, establishes Unlikeothermodesof representation, effectively photography "the within photograph, presthe the with objectbecause, relation an existential is ence ofthething a certain moment) never (CL,p. 78/CQ (at metaphoric" past remains. Thisnonmetaphorical, its encounter ghostly p. 123),evenifwe can only or to thatthe imagebears "testimony" anything real presencedoes not imply of the object. The relation or an offers "objective" "faithful" representation of is or and between indexicality truth testimony not a characteristic the index the mode of readingor perceiving photographic but a particular image that and of a conception thesubject, language, repretogether brings simultaneously between this from relation itself Lucidadistances Camera sentation. photography thatthe bodythatposesforthe camerais a whenit signals and truth precisely but its before representation that a body, subjectivity does notexist photographic of in itself constitutes in theactofsitting front thecamera. within instead that If, of the classical semiotics, process representation beginsand endsin thestability he moment identifies at undoesthiscertainty thevery Barthes of the"referent," it whenhe renames a a with plural and ofdeparture arrival this subjectivity, point of the"Spectrum thePhotograph" p. 9/CC,pp. 22-23). "little {CL, simulacrum," of the of the Far from demonstrating truth reference, indexicalcharacter the in itspresence thepastand itsabsence itsphantasmatic being, stages photograph in is The in thepresent. photograph an indexofthephotographed, thesameway he or his his that smell, fingerprints,thefootprints leavesin thesandare indices work "a certifias left or ofhim.Theyare traces fragments behindbya bodythat that as a signofsomething waspresent cateofpresence" (CL, p. 87/CQ p. 135), and and to thenbutnowis not.The indexis a signlinked mourning melancholy, was thewayin which or to never truth testimony. Indeed,recalling photography that we mayconfirm the in in itsbeginnings the nineteenth century, perceived is to an has idea thattechnology thepowerto bring occult"truth" visibility prethe To put it differently: confidence of the result a historical perception. cisely that of or we what callthereferent subject an imageis an entity is stableand that in that before thatexists a fullpresence to identical itself, representation, stands the and ofwhich camera(or language)gives of front thephotographic apparatus

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us a "faithful" "true" or not proper representation, corresponds to a characteristic to photography, to a policing ofphotographic a but To use technology. naturalize use ofphotographic of and to convert reading thephotothis policial technology of of the graphinto"the"reading it is, likeanyideological operation, result a is circudehistoricizationthemultiple of modesin which photographic the image latedand read.Nevertheless,is precisely it becausethere no single to read is way that or indexicality an index forexample,a photographic portrait a lock of hair says different a detective a policestory to in thanto theprotagosomething of nist a romance Thisiswhy novel. Bertillon Francis and Galton sought Alphonse a mode of ordering whatto theireyesseemed evident:the correspondence between subject Barthes cona and hisimage.In response, to thecontrary, and fesses "'myself that never coincides with image"(CL,p. 12/CC,pp. 26-27).9 my is or As to but Indexicalitynotlinked truth testimony, to thebody. an index, thephotograph to of toBarthes, material a relation thebody the bears, according the of which why can suggest in photography presence is he that photographed, that in As within uniquemoment thepastcan never metaphorical. he a be body "I of to notes, am delighted depressed) knowthatthe thing the past,byits (or in immediate which its radiations luminances), really has touched surface, the (its turn gazewilltouch"{CL,p-81/CC,p. 126).The photographic indexis a cormy Fromthe a "emanation," porealtrace, luminous captured a chemical by process. - that as a chemical ofitsmost effect absolute is, perspective materiality produced its traits. photographic The indexdisplays bylight photography acquires magical its alchemy, joining as if it were"a sortof umbilical cord" {CL, p. magic, by thatphotographic 81/CC,p. 126)- the bodythatearliermarked plateor film with presence thebodythat its and holdstheimagein itshandsand looksitover withits eyes.Whatdelightsand, at the same time,depressesis the double character thephotographic of trace. theone hand,theimageis a real (nonOn of a bodythatbelongedto the past.This meansthat metaphorical) fragment fromthe verybeginningthe indexicalcharacterof photography offers the of immortality. utopichope of interrupting stopping This or time,of promise the and it is surface, legible immobilizing present freezing on a two-dimensional - particularly thenineteenth-century of in thefirst ofphotography uses in custom ofthedead and itremains inscribed within desire all phothe of taking portraits Thisis and, tographic technology indeed,touches every imagethecameratakes. a photograph be considered index, thesamewaythata fossil a can an in or why ruinare indices:a fragment comesto us from pastand permits to that the us dream that totality produced is still the that it hereand,moreover, belongs still to us.On theother as a trace, an emanation a body, index for as of an hand, example,
9. For earlydiscussions the concept of indexicality, RosalindKrauss,"Noteson the Index,"in of see The Originality theAvant-Garde Other and Modernist of Myths (Cambridge,Mass.: MIT Press, 1985), pp. Du 196-219; and Jean-Marie Schaeffer, (Paris, Editionsdu Seuil, Limageprecaire. dispositif photographique we 1987). Whilewe have evoked manyaspectsof thesediscussions, also have sought,following Barthes, to indicateour distancefromthem.

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or on a photograph a footprint the beach nevergivesus preciseinformation about the bodythatposed forthe camera or thatsank its feetin the sand. whatcannotbe neglectedhere is thatwe are leftonlywithan Nevertheless, the an absence before cameraand on thesand.An indexmaintains existential with photographed the with unforeseen an relation bodyonlybecauseit signals, the "prick," wakeofitsdisappearance. Iftheindex'sdoublecharacter and then, simultaneously delights depresses, it is becauseit saysthatthe bodythatwastherewastherein sucha convincing of a thatit was able to leave a smallfragment itself, fragment we that manner But our this indexis also the touchwith gaze as ifwe weretouching body. every an (CL, signals irrecovsignofa fatality p. 6/CC,p. 18),becauseitsimultaneously is evokes greater a erabletimeand a lostobject.Thisperhaps why photography "inphotography, than indexical has senseofmelancholy other objects: something of and thissomething not has (CL, p. 78/CC,p. 123) in front thecamera, posed" if appears to have stayedthere,arrested, onlyforan slippedawaybut rather of that the the instant. Thispromise surrender produces immobile objectbefore what returns absencemost this It is is holeofthecamera perhaps mournfully. tiny also the senseof stability when,embalming time,it producedbyphotography a thatwe are as movesus to imagine, we contemplate photographic portrait, an before embalmed body. its it its but is its"effect certain unlocatable, does notfind sign, name;itis sharp it it and yetlandsin a vaguezone of myself; is acuteyetmuffled, criesout in of of the silence" 51,53/CC,p. 87). It is theforce a mark: force theindex {CL,pp. an the of that existence has only imageas itstrace, force thepuncor ofthat past The force thephotograph in of resides its wounds or tum chancethat image. every - which becausephotography us to fascinate and to leaveus defenseless capacity the of else with field theImaginarydoes nothing than has often beenassociated that we withcenter theReal,toward placewhere remain of toward very the point of a we remain mutein front an or outwords without gaze.Thisis why so often what be This we cannot named. it for second, areviewing image: is as if, a fleeting - that "photograph in order drive we to them out Kafka's alsoiswhy things phrase to not of the of our minds" connects compulsion photograph to the necessity of but the or possessing world, to thepossibility notseeingit,and this registering - or toward Realitself, the is because, points ultimately at thelimit photography what do notwish see: thepuncwe to to what do notwish name,toward we toward death.Nevertheless, whether seal our lips,close we the tum, index,contingency, the flash" notfadeaway will of or oureyes, takephotographs everything, "floating to see a photograph do notneed to open oureyesto its we or disappear. Perhaps but do literalbrutality, neither we need to close them.Ultimately or at the best our eyes limit perhaps can viewa photograph whenwe look at it with we as when lookat thesun. we half-closed,
in is This is whythere something uncanny every photographa force destabilizaof us. us even that flash," tion, something leaves in suspense as itfascinates Like a "floating

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IV Asan index, of from pastthat, the every disapimageis an emanation a body and no longerhere,nonetheless leftbehinda fragment itself. has of pearing Whenwe contemplate remnant, is,this this that we photograph, lookat itquickly in orderto arrest gaze in a newfragment, a detailthatBarthes the callsthe in In this indexandpunctum twonames designating experiare for the punctum. way, enceofthefragment thefragmentation or ofexperience wecall"photography." that As a fragment, photograph a or offers itself be read as a kindof remnant to itis what remains a totality nowis absent. of as a newtotality, it that But, corpse; theviolence lanenactedin every and in photographic act, signals photographic After a photograph a cutthattheeyeor thecamerarealizes is in all, guageitself. theworld, evenifonly this in while As Barthes way. looking fragmentary suggests, at a seriesof photographs his mother of and trying discover essencein to her them: to I a of sometimes recognized region her "According thesephotographs, a certain of her relation noseand forehead, moment herarms, hands. of the face, I neverrecognized exceptin fragments, her whichis to saythatI missedher and thatthereforemissed altogether" p. 66/CC,p. 103). These I her (CL, being, her" enablehimto "dream abouther," notto "dream but photographic fragments her Or rather, they if dream as "dream can only her," (CL,p. 66/CC,p. 104). they as as in fragmented, shattered, onlypresent the absencethatBarthes insistently and passionately wishes overcome. result thisfragmented to The of dreamis the and we that objectthat,ungrateful without memory, call an image,a fragment before eyes our as a "counter-memory" p. 91/CC,p. 142),and as (CL, appears only ifitwere matter an autonomous a of whole. Camera Lucida identifies ontological the violence that characterizes perfectly and translates intoa kindofgrammar namesthe it that photographic technology effects theimageon thebody theobserved of of and observsubject ofthesubject it pierces, and tearsa hole. Nevertheless, Barthes readsthis scans, ing: pricks, violence perhaps another namefortheforce decontextualizaof photographic tionthattakesplace in anyphotograph in relation onlyto melancholy not or butalso to enjoyment. imageis comparable, The then,to the haiku.It tragedy shares with thispoeticform "essence(of a wound)," feature thefragthe this of ment which in is because"everything is given," which neither asks nothing missing for nor "even possibility a rhetorical the of development provokes (CL, expansion" between photographic the p. 49/CC,p. 81). This identification imageand the haikuis pervasive within Barthes' and writings can be tracedin his essay"The ThirdMeaning," his book on Japan,Empire Signs, in and in his otherquasiof Roland Barthes Roland Barthes.10 each instance, In the text, autobiographical by
10. See Roland Barthes,"The Third Meaning,"in TheResponsibility Critical ofForms: Essayson Music, trans.Richard Howard (Berkeley:University CaliforniaPress, 1991), p. 56; of Art,and Representation, trans.RichardHoward (New York:Hill and Wang, 1982), p. 83; and RolandBarthes of Empire Signs, by RolandBarthes, trans.RichardHoward (Berkeley: of Press,1977), pp. 54-55. University California

Notes Love Photography on and

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is where is a liketheimage, a kindof "anaphoric haiku, gesture," "meaning only in what developed as he putsit,"undevelopable" is a is, flash, slashoflight," which seemsto have (CL, p. 49/CC,p. 81), and in which"thewakeof the signwhich within photographic the Somewhat different been traced" image"is erased."11 and that a and and from melancholy tragedy, as a fragment becomes newtotality and does not ask to be expanded,the imagetherefore acquiresthe brilliance of of context, thefetish.12 and,in this splendor thehaiku that receives is Indeed,the fetish thatfragment initially specialattention its to becauseit refers an absentobjectin orderto hide it and to occupy place. it whenthethincordtying to theobjectis cutand The imagebecomesa fetish minuscule detailwhose"mere intoit in searchof an increasingly the gaze sinks (CL, p. 42/CC, p. 71). Beforethe imagesof presencechangesmyreading" that and is Barthes unmoved thespectacle offers, by photography Mapplethorpe, closerangein order takenat very focuses theimageoftheunderwear on instead of "the to register texture thematerial" (CL, p. 42/CC,p. 71). Likethedetective mostpertinent theresolution to of thosedetails himself with whoconcerns only himto the who investigates minute thatwillconduct the the crime, analyst slip or in to a trait feature relation and the truth, the loverwho isolates particular the himself the belovedobject,the close-up to whichhe surrenders fragments at makeus forget wholetowhich the that details and world gathers they one time belonged. like and itfunctions an infinite The photographic is fetishistic; blowup, gaze for theimagein orderto search "a 'detail/i.e.,a partial (CL, p. object" enlarges film Cortazar's Antonioni's orJulio confirms, 43/CC,p. 73). AsMichelangelo story is to its to an however, enlarge image,to approach details, perhaps always go in of Barthes of searchof themystery our ownimage."To giveexamples punctum," to in a certainfashion, givemyself (CL, p. 43/CC,p. 73). In confesses, "is, up" Barthes' insists captures and is Lucida there one detailthat Camera gazewith great him were that as ifeach portrait a kindofmagnet attracts to it.Atfirst, regularity, of or as itemerges a "cultural historical" question: "many themenphotographed howlongwerenails an Nadarhavelongfingernails: ethnographical question: by this worn a certain in 30/CC,pp. 52,54). Butlater, detailappears (CL,p. period?" a portrait theyoung of whenBarthes another and with tone, contemplates again, is holdshisattention notthefaceofthephotographed Tzara.What Tristan Tzara, a Barthes "the nor even the factthathe is wearing monocle;rather, suggests, He on is of thepunctum Tzara'shand resting the door frame." thenprograce on evensmaller, truepunctum the of thatfocuses something ceeds to a close-up
the the from Camera citedphrase is 11. In thissentence Lucida), first (and notincluding citation cited are from "TheThird of pp. phrases from Empire Signs, 83 and84, Meaning," 56;andthelasttwo p. respectively. see Metz's character thephotograph, Christian of of 12. Fora discussion thefetishistic "Disavowal,
and trans.Ben Brewster al. (Indiana: et in Fetishism," TheImaginary Psychoanalysis theCinema, Signifier:

in 34 and Indiana Press, University 1986),pp. 69-80,andhis"Photography Fetish," October (Fall1985), pp.81-91.

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thephotograph: but here,"a largehandwhosenailsare anything clean"(CL, p. it 45/CC,pp. 74) wouldseemto be themostadequateanalogto whatever is that seducesus within image. an Whatdazzlesus,what wounds whenwe lookat a us, is and unexpected of detail a kindof emanation the photograph a marginal unconscious within bodyor in theimage which excluded the is from intenthe of or or and thereby tionality thephotographer thephotographed subject object, thedoorforchanceto enter. The punctum a fetish, fulgurating a detail is opens itslight, does notoccult, nevertheless but makestherestof the that, irradiating seemsto happenin Duane Michals's of imageopaque. Thisis what portrait Andy in which Warhol covers facewith handsbutnevertheless his his Warhol, manages tohidenothing. Warhol "offers handstoread,quiteopenly; thepunctum his and is notthegesture," as happens theearlier in "theslightly subbut, repellent image, of stance thosespatulate at and nails, oncesoft hard-edged" p. 45/CC,p. 77). (CL, The punctum thissoftand spatulate is detailthatcaptures it is, at the same us; this"slightly the left an time, substance," remains behindbya body, repellent or instant weloveas a fetish, an index, photograph. this that as If or attenobject, tiontonailsis a kindofpermanent for in interest Barthes already (it appears "The ThirdMeaning"), is perhaps the it becausefingernails to embody fetish: seem the factthattheycontinueto groweven after bodyto whichtheybelonghas the died we couldevensaythat that most they represent partoftheliving bodythat resembles dead matter meansthat,like the photograph, like the and closely the between and death, life and presence absence. and fetish, shatter border they of the body, Barthes'attention desirebecause, and Fragments they magnetize otherthings, belongto hismeditation thecontradictory on amongso many they character photography.a photograph a fragment steals show of If is from that the thetotality at one timehad housedit,it is becausewhat that dazzlesus within a likeBarthes' a marginal a detailthat, is, nails, photograph fragment, fulgurating within image, the leaves else Thismobile and elusive detail everything in shadows. is charged with metonymic a force. condenses imageand displaces likea It the it it it later. The ghost, can be seenhereand thenthere, appearsnowand reappears we call a photograph and the fragment illuminates have the that it fragment to from kindof a power tearbothtimeand ourgaze:"itis phantasmatic, deriving secondsight which seemsto bear me forward a Utopian to or me time, to carry backto somewhere myself{CL,p. 40/CC,p. 68). Photographytheamorous in is fetish excellence, a fragment thepresent of liketherelation between two that, par links and realizes boththepastand thefuture lovers, and,in doingso, deranges time altogether. V In his discussion thequestion resemblance, of of Barthes claims thatwhen he getsclose to a photograph, whenhe feelshe almostcan touchhis "desired his he himself CC, object, beloved's (CL, body," finds "burning" p. 100/ p. 157),as

and Notes Love Photography on

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Thisexperience burning ifconsumed a kindof fire. of not by registers onlythe of the edge of thisextremity, extremity his desireand lovebutalso,at thevery of discussion resemblance of Indeed,theentire conflagration hisidentity. belongs in If a to Barthes' identity general. a photograph against implies resempolemic this is he and blance to an identity, suggests, identity always "imprecise" "even it imaginary"; is onlyan "absurd,purelylegal, even penal affair"(CL, pp. a "looks like 100-101/ pp. 157,160). Thisis why photographic CC, always portrait and the it he of the anyone except person represents," why can find "splendor" his in Garden mother's truth theWinter CC, (CL, Photograph pp. 102-03/ p. 160).In - in which little he never the the remote this"lost, knew, little girl photograph" nevertheless evokesthe nor resembles looks"like"his mother, who neither girl encounters photographic a truth of "lineaments" hismother's - Barthes principle: "I as he she of mother a child," writes, tellmyself: "In front thephotograph my of a over catastrophe which like is going die: I shudder, Winnicott's to psychotic patient, is or occurred. Whether notthesubject already hasalready dead,every photograph of as is thiscatastrophe" p. 96/CC,p. 150). If thephotograph hismother a (CL, bearsthe traceof her future childalready because,at the death,it is certainly "has finds and views she is dead (the catastrophe it in Barthes moment which it, the lens of this and occurred" he onlycan viewthe photograph through already moment was taken, it at death),but it is also becausethe photograph, thevery "hadalready its and had mortified immobilized subject(the catastrophe already his or the but before views photograph alsobefore birth he and occurred" notonly "is or his mother's dead,"then,literally death).Whether not the mother already will of) dead,shealready haveexperienced kind death. (a becausedeathis deathto thephotographed, The photograph brings always in "eidos" thephotograph's \b/CC, 32).13Whatsurvives a photograph, (CL, p. p. also of in returns it,is therefore what always thesurvival thedead,theappearance the the within spaceofthephotograph, dead Thisis why, or ofa ghost phantom. dead. This axiom are are alive,and the alivealways dead without being always GardenPhotograph of his to enablesBarthes generalize experience theWinter in but intoa claimaboutthephotograph general, italsoleadshimtoreadhisown to but is of in to deathnotonly relation that hismother, in relation thedeaththat contains as he putsit,every announced every "always photograph photograph: by a future death"(CL,p. 91/CC,p. 151).Observing photothis sign imperious ofmy in an himself relationto a death that,through the viewer spectralizes graph, now of identification, hauntshim,now and phantasmatic uncertain process a is his nowcomestobe seenas "his": deaththat thelife and touches inhabits life,
in of and of deathis alsolegible, 13. The mother's proleptically, as a kind analog, themortality the "The photograph very was material Garden Winter old,"Barthes writes, "[t]he support. Photograph's had into the beenpasted an album, sepiaprint faded" from were corners blunted CC, {CL,p. 67/ having "fate paper (perishable)" of the it and, "evenifit is p. 106). Likeall photographs, shares common like it of it mortal: a living to attached more organism, is bornon thelevel the lasting supports, is still thenages.. . . Attacked light, humidity,fades, it a it silver by by grains, flourishesmoment, sprouting vanishes" p. 93/CC,pp. 145-46). weakens, {CL,

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of hislife, and in which exists he and lives, as dead, butas dying. exists, He not likethefirst actors who"separated themselves thecommunity playing from the by roleof the Dead,"in "a bodysimultaneously and dead" (CL, p. 31/CC,p. living of at of 56). Thatthisexperience living the threshold deathand lifeis another namefortheexperience love forwhat of takesplace in our relation theone to we love is confirmed in A Lover's "I Barthes confesses: haveprowhen, Discourse, into with suchpowerthat whenI am without otherI the jected myself theother cannot recover I am lost,forever."14 he suggests While that myself, regain myself: thisloss of selfoccursespecially relation the absentother, also implies in he to thatit happens evenwhentheotheris presumably relasincethevery "present," tionbetween selfand an othermeansthat, a inhabits the becauseeach already neither selfnortheothercan return himself in thecase ofhis the to other, (or, to in and theother deconstitute another one mother, "herself):theself precisely their relation. If neitherBarthesnor his mothercan remainsimply it themselves, is the traceof the other, each can become identified withthe because,bearing other. possibility this The of ofthe transformation one intotheother confirmed is in an extraordinary in moment whichBarthes in an extreme claims, temporal to and therefore have become a to reversal, have givenbirthto his mother, mother himself. After thatthe Greeks intoDeath backward," "entered recalling Barthes on discovering Winter the of as Garden claims, Photograph his"mother a to have"worked back"in relation thisphotograph not to a life, child," "through butthelifeofsomeoneI love." goeson to suggest He whiletaking that, myown, careofhisailing mother theend ofherlife," is able toexperience back"at he the ward "movement the Photograph" its capacityto take him back to the of childhood hismother-in "reality" p. 71/CC,pp. 111-12)."During illof her (CL, he explains, nursedher,held the bowlof tea she likedbecauseit was "I ness," easierto drink from thanfrom cup; she had becomemylittle a for girl, uniting mewith essential that childshewasin herfirst I experiphotograph Ultimately encedher, as inner as my feminine child. Which was law, strong she had been,my ofresolving Death... ifafter been reproduced otherthanhimas my way having the deniedand transcended I self, individual dies,having himself,who thereby had not procreated, had, in hervery I illness, ( engendered mother" CL, p. my that had 72/CC,pp. 112-13).Acknowledging his mother always been his "inner Barthes that in he law," she suggests she wasalready himbefore washimself; was or than the she already stronger moreforceful he: from very beginning, had left an imprint himand therefore on birth him,reproduced to him,"as other given thanhimself." a mechanism reproduction, mother As for the reproduces likea camera notthesamething, something she therefore (Barthes but else: kills says he "dies")at thesame timethatshe engenders, to birth, produces, gives brings the light day,and givessomething be seen. He confirms death this of to this
14. Roland Barthes,A Lover's Discourse: trans.RichardHoward (New York:Farrar, Straus, Fragments, and Giroux,1978), p. 49.

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in birth when, happens this as he deaththat attends himself passage, encounters In the in in thefigure themother. experiencing mother's of alterity, experiencing "in in he the disalterity the mother, experiences alteration him"thatinfinitely his This from moment his birth, the of places and delimits singularity. is why, a to Barthes body already experiences kindof deathin relation thematernal - a residueliveson in his bodyand therefore retrospectively bodywhosematerial her to not confirms onlyhis body'spassagethrough bodybut also his capacity evenafter death.Embodying the her both a to retain relation themother's body, Barthes' of deathand life, bodybearsthe traces theplace pastand thepresent, his darkwomb he where once lived(and livedin orderto begindying): mother's of As "Freud "darkroom"). he notes, (or,as we might it,hismother's says the put with muchcerso ofwhich can say one 'there no other is that maternal place body of been there'"(CL, p. 40/CC,p. 68). The condition that tainty one has already to thatgivessomething be seen, the fora processof reproduction possibility darkroom. and mother's Giving developer, photographic bodyis at once camera, This bond birthto an image,the motheris anothername forphotography. Barthes' and is and between text, itis throughout photography themother legible to he in he to notrestricted thosemoments which refers the mother explicitly: of thathe does textarounda photograph his dead mother his structures entire all and to which wishes derive photography, he conhe but notreproduce, from of like as in ceivesof photography maternal that, terms, a process reproduction means which chemical birth a seriesof images through to the mother, gives are and their and create, subjects, which joined to theobserving preserve, destroy the of cord.Within world Camera the a kindofumbilical Lucida, mother by subject of is an incunabulum images. her evenafter has she "in evenafter death, mother remains him," IfBarthes' the thisis because,beyondthe material and passed away, traces, disappeared in of on herbodyhasleft his,sheremains himin a series memomaterial imprint ries and scenes thatare nothingelse than images:she leaves "in him"only can his Recalling mother(but whatelse, otherthanthe mother, we images.15 a of but associates with series different, related her Barthes remember?), images whensheis her thentheimageshebecomes the first imageofherduring illness, and thenthe imageof the one whomhe child"or "little his "feminine girl," with that It is not an accident, however, he identifies the mother, "engenders." not moment whenhis "mother," yeta at the very withthe maternal function, Like the mother who child"in her "first is the "essential mother, photograph." hismother an other(as a as Barthes theselfas an other, reproduces reproduces he into his of series others). identity, Incorporating dead mother hisownspectral and enablesa kindof "resurrection" p. 82/CC,p. 129), another"birth," (CL, his but an of her counters deathwith element life(perhaps "own"), a life thereby a in death.If thephotograph wasthere themother's that bespeaks living already
Brault and trans. Pascale-Anne see 15. On thispoint, Jacques Derrida, Forceof Mourning," "By Work Mourning,159. Michael Naas,in The of p.

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certain Barthes it that notes, is because"itcertifies thecorpseis alive,as horror, itistheliving ofa deadthing" pp. 78-79/ p. 123);itisbecause, CC, (CL, corpse: image inother within photograph, deadandtheliving the the become undead.16 words, The generalrelay thatthe between and the mother suggests photography - and, in thisinstance,the photograph knowas the son who we photograph becomesthe mother is endowed with magical a and uncanny powerto procreand thisis confirmed one of the mostremarkable in ate, passagesin Camera a passagethat the the thebody, gaze,theself, referLucida, brings together light, and the maternal is an Bartheswrites: "The photograph literally ent, body. emanation thereferent. of Froma realbody, was radiations which there, proceed is whichultimately touchme, who am here; the durationof the transmission the photograph the missing of touches likethe delayed me insignificant; being of A of to cordlinks body thephotographed the of rays a star. sort umbilical thing is herea carnalmedium, skinI sharewith a mygaze: light, though impalpable, 17 whohas been photographed" pp. 80-81/CQ pp. 126-27). Evoking (CL, anyone
16. IfBarthes to if we not desires resurrect mother,hewishes recover revivify body, should his to and her be surprised hiseffort reverse trajectoryherlife, bring backtolife, perhaps to the to her and of by beginfrom death. her Thiseffort legible, itsmost in in of is and structure secret hidden form, thevery ning Camera and of at insofar wecanclaim andwebelieve can that structure writing as we the Lucida, least thetext is of embodies desire. canbegin readthis his We to effort first that by noting thetext composed two It written with of for of parts, eachpart consistingtwenty-four chapters, a total forty-eight chapters.was between 15 in are which means itwaswritten forty-eight There twentythat 3, April andJune 1979, days. five within book, since first Daniel the the Boudinet's color 1979 one, but, photographs reproduced photoof within text outside thetext, there twenty-four are the Polaroid, strictly is, graph speaking, photographs The seems within context thebook,sinceit the of proper. number twenty-four particularly significant - that evokes number still the of framesthenumber photograms passthroughfilm of a projector every secondas wellas thenumber hoursin a day, of that thenumber hoursthat of constitute cycle the is, between andnight light darkness. number and and The becomes more day forty-eight perhaps significant, if that Barthes' mother at theage ofeighty-four, readbackward,fortydied is however,we recall which, Thisreversed identification seemtobe only would and coincidental, perhaps a gameofnumeight. only bersand chance, itbecomes so when remember Barthes but less we that claims havediscovered to the Winter Garden the he most with of Photograph, photograph associates closely the"essence" hismother, "by back Time." he to this of that Moreover, seems reinforce gesture reversal noting "[t]he moving through by Greeks entered Deathbackward: they before into what had them their was In I past. thesameway worked backthroughlife, my a not own, thelife someone love" but of I there would (CL,p. 71/CC, 111).While p. be much say to about these the we is in real what Barthes correspondences, least cansay that, a very sense, - because hislove hismother, seems want to of for because hisdesire have alive beside of to her and him istohave text his the of but as in so, embody trajectoryhismother's lifespan, inreverse, if, doing itmight, the of from to deathand thereby life itfrom byreversing movement herlife transforming deathto life, restore tohim. thesame that claims have her In to started hismother's with "latest magically way he image, taken summer the before death" then have"arrived, her and to ofa at traversing three-quarters century, theimage a child" p. 71/CC, Ill), he states intaking ofhismother of care when wasill, she in (CL, that, p. care his he this movement reality.is in It taking ofheras ifshehadbecome child, experienced backward this of and of that him his experience thedisplacement reversal time encourages toseektoconjure motherthrough actofwriting isas much actofdesire love itisan actofcounting. an that an and as 17. Thisplay between and between photograph emanations, be registered the and can in light skin, theFrench word "film": for From the and have pellicule. pellis, skin, pellicule "film" originally thesame a or a in Barthes theword uses skin, kindofmembrane. meaning: small thin Although, thispassage, he his of connection between and film peauand notpellicule, demonstrates awareness this etymological skin a connection suggests relation that the between "carnal this medium" thephotogramin and
RolandBarthes RolandBarthes. RolandBarthes RolandBarthes, 54. See by by p.

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of bodiesgiveoff and materDemocritus histheory eidolas in which emanations, the of to that ial vestiges thesubject, travel of through medium light theeyesofa - Barthes that a brings together distant suggests thephotograph past spectator18 that "delayed ofa star" what the in is moment thesameway and a present rays join at it is to most distant what closest hand,and that is also boundto thespectator's of As in cordcomposed light. ElissaMarder suggests gaze bya kindofumbilical of herreading this passage, means "light whoseetymology writing," alchemically photography, into flesh.In this transformation, transforms photography light reconnects bodyofthe the medium magically that a becomes maternal cord.This to thebodyof thereferent an umbilical by viewing subject boththe in turn, creates newcorpusthatenvelops a umbilical cord, In undera common skin. and thephotographed object subject viewing transubstantiates theact of transforming intoskin, photography light it time and space.19 and of thebody thereferent transportsthrough dead ifit the and the dead intothe living transforms living If thephotograph at or dead in a kindof"amorous funereal to bindstheliving the immobility,the limbby iflifeand deathare "gluedtogether, heartof the moving world"; very tortures" p. 6/CC, manand thecorpsein certain like (CL, limb, thecondemned - itis also because, kills thephotograph at thesametime likethemother, p. 17) observed the lens, As thatit givesbirth. Barthes by putsit, "once I feelmyself creates bodyor mortifies it, my changes I feelthatthePhotograph everything the to p. according itscaprice"(CL, pp. 10-11/CC, 25). Likethemother, photoand life interiority graphexistsbetween and death,the pastand the present, whose and and subject image.It opensontoa future body exteriority, and image, enablesus to delineate can evenifwhat be known are lineaments notyetknown, the of and limit death.Thisis why mother Barthes' of thecontours thehorizon - is nothing morenorlessthana figure thebirth for but mother, also all mothers and deathofphotography. VI of If the WinterGarden Photographis indeed the "invisible punctum" Barthes'elegiacbook20 even thoughit does not belongto the seriesof phoit haunts entire the and he book;wecould tographs exhibits analyzes, nevertheless is in the that as evensaythat, thewound "signs" book,there no sentence thebook of we is that nottouched it he soonsuggests in thinking thephotograph, that, by to in in see 's of of 18. For a discussion Democritustheory eidolas relation photography general, in ed. Without "The Home of Shame," Cities Branka Citizens, EduardoCadavaand AaronLevy Arsic, and Museum Library, Rosenbach Books; 2003),p. 36. Slought (Philadelphia: in Age on to 19. Marder, "Nothing Say: Fragments theMother the ofMechanical Reproduction," p. 32. "TheDeaths Roland of is 20. The phrase from Barthes," 43. Derrida, p.

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think of we other thansimply or photography: must must think something of light hisgrief herdeath, at and the he what callsthe"last music," songofhismother of As a and, in general, kindof accordor correspondence. he notes:"The Winter before wrote Schumann Garden was me collapsPhotograph for likethelastmusic bothmymother's der that with beingand my ing,thatfirst Gesang Friihe accords seriesof this at grief herdeath:I could notexpress accordexceptbyan infinite the had stressed relation {CL, p. 70/CC,p. 110).2iWhilehe already adjectives" and of and between photography musicin his discussion the studium punctum he two "(forin "Havingthusdistinguished themesin Photography," writes, in of I generalthe photographs likedwereconstructed the manner a classical the I with {CL,p. 27/CC,p. 49)- his sonata), couldoccupy myself one after other" resonant reference Schumann's musicis particularly last to here,since,among and an earlieressay Schumann" it otherthings, evokeshis 1979 essay"Loving "The Romantic entitled 1976on Schumann Schubert and from Song."In thelatto whilelistening the Schumannian he addresses tertext, explains he lied, that, and I himself "an Image:the imageof thebelovedin which lose myself from to with comesbackto me.""I struggle an image," which ownimage, abandoned, my of his he goes on to say,anticipating laterunderstanding his relationto the lost "which boththe imageof the desired, other, is Winter GardenPhotograph, After and my and ownimage, however, death, desiring abandoned."22 hismother's assomusic becomes evoked Schumann's thefigure the"desired, other" of lost by to and the and ciatedspecifically hismother herdeath, with lossofself which with thisrelationand death give birth.He makes thispoint explicitin "Loving of thatSchumann themusician "solitary is whenhe claims Schumann," intimacy, . of of the amorous to and imprisoned thatspeaks itself.. in short, thechild soul thatSchumann's whohas no otherlinkthanto theMother," whenhe states and in musicis "atonce dispersed unary, and continually taking refuge theluminous shadow theMother of is work, ... theexpression (thelied,copiousin Schumann's
can this series adjectives" critical of is 21. ThatBarthes only here, "express" accordby"an infinite and especially relation whathe understands thephotographic in in to as character theadjective of He this in of between and general. draws "correspondence" adjectives photography theseries lectures he delivered 1978at theCollege France "TheNeutral," longafter deathofhismother in de on not the the and his (a deaththatleavesits tracesthroughout lectures) just twoyearsbefore death.As a counter thepetrifying, to in effects theadjective, of Barthes that, thedisdeath-bringing explains courseofthelover, lover's the to his with leads tendency cover beloved adjectives eventually thelover to experience wounding "from the lack which suffers" he comes"toseeka linguistic and predication this:thatthe totality imaginable of the will wayof addressing predicates neverreachor exhaust absolute of Whenhe claimsthathe cannotexpress accord the specificity the objectof his desire." "last his and at amongSchumann's music," mother's being, hisgrief herdeath"except an infinite by series adjectives," implies all efforts fixor arrest accordinevitably fail, of he that to is this will which this has number times. of Thathisdiscussion theadjective of is why effort to beginagainan infinite resonant with concerns Camera his in in Lucida reinforced is whenhe claims, a waythat particularly evokes mother herdeath, his and that linguistic "in culture" "two the that to objects" are understood be "beyond either horror in desire" "thecorpseand the desiredbody." in or are See predication
Roland Barthes,TheNeutral: Lecture Course theCollege France at de (1977-1978), trans.Rosalind E. Krauss and Denis Hollier (NewYork:Columbia University Press,2005), pp. 52, 58. Roland Barthes,"The RomanticSong,"in TheResponsibility 22. Forms, 290. of p.

Notes Love Photography on and

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that of thismaternal to even unity)."23 Suggesting we havea relation theMother this when arealoneand speaking to ourselves we becauseweinternalize (and only the of we hertrace as weinternalize trace themusic hear),Schumann's music, just of and likephotography, lovetoa force arrest, the"Mother" photography. to joins and darkness within whichphotography Associated withthe light the emerges, out to and of Mother turns tobe linked therhythms scansions music also "itself." mostremarkable aboutthisseriesof associations among Whatis perhaps it and themother is that transcribes music ontoa love,death, music, mourning, and This relation of mortality finitude. between music shadowy representation and deathis evokedin AndreMalraux's1933 accountof the earlydaysof the Malrauxnotesthat"music The ChineseRevolution, HumanCondition. onlycan that music ofdeath."24 on theone hand,he suggests ofall theartsonly If, speak of death,on the otherhand,he tellsus thatmusiccan onlyspeakof can speak music in but can music, other words, death, speakofnothing death.Whatmakes what always is abouttovanish. Thisis ofit,weencounter in is that, ourexperience within linkedto mourning, in particular, Camera musicis for and, why, Barthes, this between loveand mourning. to Indeed,itis precisely latLucida, therelation and him theWinter GardenPhotograph thatdraws is that evoked terrelation by in relation thisparticular to thathe since toward photograph Photography, it is of ... the that to claims understand he must "interrogate evidence Photography in call we to relation what romantically loveand death"(CL,p. 73/CC,p. 115).Like in in music loveand death, character, theimpossibiltransitory begins itsfugitive, has as it. music often been understood of ity ourevercomprehending Thisis why In the of we encounter "an artbeyond signification."25 experience music, always We even an aleatory audible,evocative) (butsonorous, oversignification. might matter. Like the otherwho saythatmusicis, as it were,the leastincorporated this our remains is, beyond comprehensionas we know, incomprehension always evenafter of a forBarthes, condition loveand itsmany remains, enigmas music
in 23. Roland Forms, Schumann," The Barthes, "Loving Responsibility pp. 293-94. of Editions Barthes humaine La 24. Malraux, condition Gallimard, 1946), 334.Although (Paris: p. rarely but from bothin a brief richtext 1975entihe Chinaand itsrevolutionary evokes history, addresses in to reactions text his elicited In coda la tledAlors Chine? a two-page - written response thenegative he Chinaas an object, wouldliketo readitas the"feminine he suggests that, (mater"hallucinating" he and to This is itself." hallucinationnot"gratuitous,"explains, itis meant of nal?)infinite theobject and discourse. At hallucination China's of Western the "directly political" dogmatic go against popular linksthe thought Chinato of statement he thismoment, makesa remarkable that,likeMalraux, moves indirection, notes he that aimofhis the or that music. always by Claiming theintellectual writer to be a that text little wastooffer discourse would just(and "musically" in relation theindirectness so) can to of that of Chinese musicality be "just" theindecipherability Claiming onlya certain politics. and to that"itis necessary love music," "theChinesealso."In this he Chinesepolitics, concludes in Lucida music and loveare on the with what suggests Camera he then instance, - and in keeping and evenon thesideof ourcomprehension, perhaps on sideofindirection, thesideofwhat escapes as See Alors evenifin themodeofa question, the"maternal." Roland he what darestoevoke, Barthes, Christian la Chine? Editeur, 1975), 8, 13-14. (Paris: Bourgois pp. of on makes thispointin his reading Adorno writings music. s See Lacoue-Labarthe 25. Philippe Ficta trans. McCarren Stanford Musica Lacoue-Labarthe, (Stanford: {Figures Wagner), Felicia of Philippe Press, University 1994), 144. p.

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we hearit,evenafter incorporate trace, we its somewhere us, beyond resonating and we at a distance, an exteriority extends every in in direction that experithat evenwhenit ence as the openingof the world.Musichas no hiddensurface, or remains either it unseen;likeBarthes' mother, appears"without showing hidLike love and itself(CL, p. 69/CC,p. 107). It is fugitive evanescent. and ing" us to its death,it has thecapacity dispossess subjects, and,sinceit determines by we to us inaccessible ourselves, us, us, displacing bydisappropriating bymaking like To saythat music of is then, tosaythat, photography "only speaks death," death. and love,music from ourimminent ourdeparture ourselves, always signals of a form Itisalsotosaythat music always beena means experiencing of has traces, or to or writing. photography,has thepower leavean imprint Like it inscription it itself. trace and ithasthis other because, things, is rhythm When power among he Mallarme in Music Letters "every is a rhythmic that soul and knot,"26 recalls says "characmeant thearchaic senseoftheword "music": which "letter," "type," rhythm, of and even"scheme." iswhy This music theviolent ter," always implies imposition a for orvinyl, certain material itis theimpression insomemalleable that, form; (wax - produces effigy. designate - and,again,notunlike To an example) photography from the an operation thiskind, Greeks of the used theverbtupein, tupos: mark, often conBarthes EmileBenveniste whom theimprint, characters. (for engraved "TheNotion in fessed admiration love)27 his and confirms point his1966essay this meansoriginally of 'Rhythm' Its Linguistic in thatrhuthmos noting Expression," skhema and that alsocharacterizes belongs a genit to) (form, schema) (and figure, eralized of and often process differentiation distinction exemplified theletters by ofthealphabet.^ Thisrelation between and and between rhythm inscription, rhythm letters, evokes question writing general, question thebasisofwhich seems the of in a on it theworks Barthes, think of to aboutthesubject's possible, passing through preinwithin Lacoue-Labarthe notesin hisanalysis of But, scription writing. as Philippe Benveniste'sessay,we should not move too quicklythroughthe steps of Benveniste'sargument.29 Benvenistein fact insiststhat skhema only an is
26. Stephane La et in Mallarme, musiqueUslettres,Oeuvres (Paris: 1945), 644. completes Gallimard, p. 27. See, forexample, Barthes' 1974essay, I he situates (in "Why LoveBenveniste" which explicitly Benveniste within context a discussion therelation the of of between and music), The love in Rustle of trans. Richard Howard of Press, Language, 1989), 167. (Berkeley: UniversityCalifornia p. 28. See Benveniste, notion 'rhythme' son expression "La de dans in de linguistique," Problemeslinvol. Gallimard, 1966), 330. guistiques generate, 1 (Paris: p. 29. See Lacoue-Labarthe 's "TheEchooftheSubject," trans. Barbara in Harlow, Typography: Mimesis, MA.: Politics, Press, Philosophy, ed. Christopher (Cambridge, Harvard Fynsk University 1989), 196-203. pp. In many our of of in respects, reading Benveniste's - and of thenotion "rhythm" general is a essay miniaturized of 's an he somewhat telephotograph Lacoue-Labartheargument, argument repeats in on herethat, Barthes Ficta, graphically Musica especially pp. 77-83.We wouldsuggest although refers Lacoue-Labarthe to 's essay, "Caesura theSpeculative," Camera of in Lucida(see CC,p. 141),itis this "TheEchooftheSubject," hasthemost that resonance hisbook.A reading with of perhaps essay, Theodor Reik'sThe the other a on is, Haunting Melody, latter essay among things, meditation therelations and music, among mourning, autobiography.

could even saythatit means the vanishing the of subject.

on Notes Love Photography and

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of If skhema "a realized form as designates fixed, approximation rhuthmos. posited rhuthmos form themoment is taken what in movement, is "the at an object," it is by the thathas no organic It mobile, fluid, form consistency."is, he adds,"impromodifiable" form.30 means, This that vised, momentaneous, amongotherthings, of is theform rhythm traversed time, to putitdifferently, is itsconditime or, by tionofpossibility. we Lacoue-Labarthe, can saythattheword"rhythm" Following - at thevery of thesubject's to or already implies edge capacity figure represent the itself themark, stamp, imprint the us within movement, its that, inscribing everreturning ourselves, to sendsus backto thenight chaos us and prevents from that,neverorderedbyus, enablesus to appearas whatwe are, as whatwe are This of and also not ourselves.31 process inscription impression characterizes the a space in which, Barthes as we always suggests, space, experience photographic In of as soul the"advent" ourselves an other. this sense, "every is a rhythperhaps, of and of a and micknot," bringing together stasis movement, stability instability, - which to saythat We therefore32 is we ofsingularity repetition. are rhythmed, and in a Barthes confirms becomean impression, particular,photographic impression. of to voiceand thistransformation in thecontext hisrelation thebeloved's (and "in Discourse in The Lover's whenhe writes that, thefascinating image,what body) of but me(like sensitized is nottheaccumulation itsdetails thisor a paper) impresses to touchme (ravish in theotheris Whatsuddenly thatinflection. me) manages of the the thevoice,thelineoftheshoulders, slenderness thesilhouette, warmth Like of and that ofthehand,thecurve a smile, so forth."33 thedetailor punctum thatwoundshim,the detailsof his beloved'sbodyenterhimand pierceshim, the of him transform intotheregister, imprint, a seriesof impressions like that, his thatrecords other'strace,confirm photographic the the "sensitized paper" within photographic a The bodyhe lovesis not his character, inscription process. his he sincebothenter ownbodyand,in entering prethe unlike music loves, it, as "he" evenif, he suggests, and hisbody become it vent from remaining "his," just this from somewhere as ifitwere else a kindofmusical organthat"plays" music is "him"(likethepunctum, music added to hisbody, the evenas it from emerging musicgoes muchfarther thanthe ear,"Barthes "Schumann's is already there). intothemuscles thebeatsofitsrhythm, "it and by explains, goes intothebody, of itsmelos;as ifon each intotheviscera thevoluptuous somehow by pleasure the it." occasionthepiece waswritten forone person, one whoplays "The only moi"34 he adds,is him:"c'est himand pierctrueSchumannian Entering pianist," and of musictransforms animates him ing himlikethepunctum a photograph, of he the one whocan experience in therhythm thisprocess, becomes only and, the faithful the to and interpret musicin a particular in a waythatremains way,
30. 31. 32. 34.
33.

dans "La de Benveniste, notion 'rhythme' sonexpression linguistique,"333. p. "Echo See Lacoue-Labarthe, oftheSubject," 202. p. this in Lacoue-Labarthe makes identical point ibid., 202. p. Barthes, Schumann," 295. p. "Loving
A Discourse, 191. Barthes, Lover's p.

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of in madness its movement. he "Rhythmed" thisway, isjostled backand forth off suruntilhe appearsto becomea kindof light that, rebounding theseveral morethanwhat he faces encounters, it ensures his"identity" that remains nothing diselsewhere a "fleeting calls As of index."35 he putsit in hisanalysis thelover's his from musical a interest a photographic "in to course, one, displacing interest theamorous I keeprebounding I am light."36 encounter, In an unpublished from 1977entitled lecture "Music, Voice,and Language," that Barthes reinforces relay this between music and lovebysuggesting music in - in the composer's withnight thanwith moreoften associated light imaginary, he fact"derives" from discourse love."Every the of 'successful' relation," writes, "successful thatit managesto saythe implicit in without it, articulating to pass overarticulation intothecensorship desireor thesublimation of without falling of oftheunspeakable sucha relation rightly calledmusical."37 music can be The articulalovetherefore toa spaceofrelation silence a spacewithout and belongs tion but one whose silence is linkedto the "affect the lost,abandoned of in Barthes reinforces claimin Camera this Lucida an exquisite subject." passageon the relations the night, and, again,a certain silence,blindness, amongmusic, a can accord.Immediately noting after thatthepunctum "accommodate certain he thatit can appearwhenhe is not looking a photograph, writes: at latency," - or well, "Ultimately at thelimit in orderto see a photograph it is bestto look or closeyour The necessary condition an imageis sight,' for Janouch away eyes. to in toldKafka; Kafka and smiled replied: photograph and 'We things order drive them ofourminds. stories a way shutting eyes.' out are The photograph of My my must silent. . this nota question discretion, ofmusic. be . is of Absolute but subjecis achieved a state, effort, silence(shutting eyesis to makethe in an of tivity your The photograph its touches ifI withdrawfrom usual me it speakin silence). image blah-blah: etc.:to saynothing, shut to 'Art,' 'Technique,' 'Reality,' 'Reportage,' my to allowthedetailto riseofitsownaccordintoaffective consciousness" ( CL, eyes, a music, pp. 53,55/CC,pp. 88-89). Encounteringphotographlikeencountering - requires certainsilenceand blindness, Barthes a this and, together, suggests and silence blindness a of from (or suggest kind withdrawal moreconventional less of If the surprising) understandings photography.he likens silenceof thephototo of his we to graph theexperience shutting eyestowhat do notwish see or wish toname, and tomusic itself should remember silence, he says, that as nonethe(we lessstill it never to it it speaks), is becausemusic gives anything sight: says nothing, cannot immobilized,is,in Marie-Louise be it Mallet's a and words, "'rebel'object," thisbecause,before becomean object.38 Like love, else, everything it can never and photography, it escapesthetheoretical it in death, regard; remains thedark. Thisis why Nietzsche callsmusicthe "artof the night," why associates and he it
35. 36. 37. 38. in ofForms, 248. Barthes, "Listening," Responsibility p. A Barthes, Lover's Discourse, 199. p. Barthes, "Music,Voice, and Language,"in TheResponsibility Forms, 284. of p. en Mallet,La musique respect (Paris: EditionsGalilee, 2002), p. 11.

on and Notes Love Photography

33

In with "night" philosophy the of itself.39 Barthes' whilemusicmaybe of terms, like theorderofan "event," thephotographic or objectitappearsonlyto subject it and at a of This moment, work mourning. disappear, thisis why requires, every to music ifitnamesanything all,a losswithout is simply saythat at names, return; itrecalls deathto us,and,sincethenight we death, couldevensay always suggests thereis no musicwithout night death.As he the or that,in Barthesian terms, in to Schumann is in a way to states relation hisloveofSchumann, ... ... "Loving a Nietzschean or again,to riskthistimethe most word,Untimeliness, adopt wordthereis: Night."40 means,amongotherthings, This Schumannian thatto on between music and thenight, between musicand death,is focus therelation since menaces projects the of to something "untimely," thisfocus already suggest and truth. Like the Bartheswho claimsthathe can knowledge, philosophy, "all all and only respondto photographs bydismissing knowledge, culture," by from another than[his]own"(CL,p. 51/CC,p. "toinherit eye anything refusing does so "against age,"which, he sugthe as wholovesSchumann 82), theBarthes Lovemeans: the since ofloving. is theonly way going against age, responsible gests, so in whodoes so and says to posithimself histime "itinevitably thesubject leads and notaccording thoseofhissocialto to of according theinjunctions hisdesire the chanceof and ity,"41 thisis, he suggests, onlywayto haveeventhe slightest the cherished the body. singularity, beloved's addressing beloved's our canas What however, when, Barthes asks, eyesmeetwhat they happens, it encounter whatcannotbe encountered whether be not see, or whenthey or Whatmight love,death,photography, eventhe beloved's music, singularity? haveto do with whatmakesphotograand of thisexperience blindness shadows linkedto an experienceof In phyphotography? whatwayis sightessentially that not but an of experience sight mourning, experience mourning mourns only can is the itself? is mourning becomemusic? Why only most profound Why itthat As would is itthat music mostexpressive in thesilenceofthenight? Barthes only of is touched the haveit:as soonas a technology theimageexists, sight already by It a in whose secrets It belongto thenight. radiates light night. is inscribed a body us the falls It ofthenight. tells that night on us. "Butevenifitwerenotto fallon Derrida are us,wealready in thenight," explains, instruments haveno needfor that as soonas wearecaptured optical by ... In the nocturnal of the light day.We are already ghosts. space in we whichthisimageof us, thispicture are in the processof having it is becausewe know Moreover, "taken," described, is already night. in once taken, once captured, suchan imagecan be reproduced that, this we that are ourabsence, becauseweknow already, already know we
on trans.R. J. Hollingdale (Cambridge: 39. Nietzsche,Daybreak: Thoughts thePrejudices Morality, of Press,1982), p. 143. CambridgeUniversity 40. Barthes, "LovingSchumann," 298. p. 41. Ibid.

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haunted a future bearsourdeath.Our disappearance already that is by there.42 Camera Lucida in in of to begins theshadowy night thisrelation death, thisrhythmicplay between and death, life and absence, light darkness. and As and presence Barthes works demonstratebutin accordance to of withthe madness whathe callsa "stupid" (CL, metaphysics p. 85/CC,p. 133) theentire logicofourrelation to theworld be readhere,and itcan be readas thelogicofthephotograph. can Liketheworld, photograph the itself be experienced as a fragment, to allows only as a remnant, what of withdraws experience. from Thisexperience and ifit only were different itwouldnotbe an experience all is an experience theimposat of of Thisis why, after deathofhismother, thedeathof the after sibility experience. in himself relation hismother deaththat, he tells did nothavetowait to as us, (a untilhis mother's that death,or evenhis),Barthes entirely suggests we remain for in we survive impossibility the ofexperience, unprovided in a world which must in which photograph thephotograph we generally the as understand butalso it, thephotograph wenowcan call"Barthes" tells ifittells anything all, that us at us, that iswith and deaththat haveto live, it loss we what cannot and experience love, be experienced. music loveand death(and there be no other)can be This of can for lackofa better called, name, "photography."

42.

de Entretiens (Paris:EditionsGalilee,1996),p. 131. JacquesDerrida,Echographiesla television. filmes