This personal, wide-ranging, and contemplative volume--and the last book Barthes published--finds the author applying his influential perceptiveness and associative insight to the subject of photography. To this end, several black-and-white photos (by the likes of Avedon, Clifford, Hine, Mapplethorpe, Nadar, Van Der Zee, and so forth) are reprinted throughout the text.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"This is a great book--flawed, impossible, infuriating, and moving . . . but he has accomplished in this extraordinary book something finer than mere polemic. En route to his last painful discovery, Barthes takes the reader on an exquisitely rendered, lyrical journey into the heart of his own life and the medium he came to love, a medium that flirts constantly with the 'intractable reality' of the human condition."--Douglas Davis, Newsweek
Language Notes
Text: English, French (translation)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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112 of 120 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
You don't have to be especially interested in photography to get something out of Camera Lucida. It was Roland Barthes' final book, the last of his great and highly idiosyncratic trilogy of autobiographical works (the earlier two being "A Lover's Discourse" and "Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes").
Although the book is ostensibly about Barthes' attempt to work out why he is moved by some photographs and not by others, it soon reveals itself to be a meditation on the absence inherent in photography. Barthes wrote before radical manipulation of the image had become a standard practice in photography, but even if he hadn't it would make no difference, as he is only interested in photographs insofar as they depict something that was there at that particular time, and is now (presumably) gone. He is particularly eloquent on a photograph - deliberately unreproduced here - of his beloved mother, who'd died shortly before he began to write the book. He doesn't even try to elaborate a grand theory of photography; this is unashamedly a book about himself and the loss he has suffered, which he finds echoed and prefigured in the photographs that he holds dear. This being the case, he is able to write as movingly and beautifully about a 19th century photograph of a condemned man ("I observe with horror an anterior future of which death is the stake") as he can about the cherished Winter Garden photograph of his mother (which he doesn't reproduce in the book because, he says with heartbreaking discreetness, "it exists only for me").
Barthes wouldn't feel much at home in the digital age. For all his academic reputation as a whip-cracking avant-gardist, his most powerful and convincing writing is always yearning back to the past. He almost manages to make nostalgia seem not merely respectable but essential. But his generosity prevents him from imposing this point of view on the rest of us. That's what made him a great writer.
53 of 56 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Roland Barthes - Camera Lucida
Frequently as I read through the brief, but provocative, Camera Lucida I would turn to the author photograph of Barthes on the back of the book. The further I got into Barthes' book the more I wondered just what he would have thought of the photo of himself. You see, in the pages of Camera Lucida Barthes explains how he sees most portraits as mere images that are far separated from the true identity, much less the soul, of the subject. And so I wondered, did Barthes ever see this portrait of himself? Was he the one who chose it for the back cover? Are the subtleties of this photograph effects Barthes consciously created as he posed for the camera?
These questions that arouse in my mind went to the heart of, indeed were a product of my reading of, Camera Lucida. In this book Barthes explores the nature of photography, what sets it apart from other arts, what are its benefits, its liabilities. He also wonders what exactly a photograph is, what that cold image on paper truly captures.
The book opens with Barthes wondering what is that one thing that a photograph, out of all other forms of art, possesses. While contemplating this he also muses that a photograph is forever linked to the object of which it is taken. That is to say that a photograph of a girl is always linked to that girl whereas a painting of a girl might very well be the construction of the author's mind and have no real world analog. Barthes does well to open with these two thoughts because they become the central insights on which he hangs the rest of his theories.
Barthes is also concerned with how a photograph can exist, that is to say how it can become more than simply a sign pointing as a real world object, how it can come to embody that object on its own, how it can achieve, in a word, transparency. He sees photographs as dead objects, indeed at times is obsessed with this Death that he claims photographs confer on their subjects. It seems that somewhere inside Barthes is a desire to discover photographs that are not shadowed by Death; this is the transparent photograph he seeks.
As Barthes investigates these theoretical propositions he beautifully blends blend cold theory and personal reflection. For instance, when Barthes recounts his experiences as the camera's subject, and we discover a shy, even vulnerable personality. Similarly Barthes evokes tender feelings when he recounts the touching effects of discovering what he believes to be the one true photograph of his mother. In Camera Lucida we see that the author is a man for whom ideas are not theoretical abstractions, but deeply felt concerns whose resolution is central to his well being. This organic blend of personal and professional reflection makes Camera Lucida a work of much intellect and much beauty.
Camera Lucida is a slim book that carries a great deal of weight. It is a book that is highly recommended to anyone who is concerned with what separates a good photograph from a great one, as Barthes points a way past the proliferation of mediocre photographs to the truly great ones.
29 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
One of my favorite books. Its discussion on the
subject of "photography" is incidental; instead, individual photos dominate. Camera Lucida is a
book about loss & grief, mortality, and love. It
is highly elliptical and idiosyncratic ("rambling"
to some), beautiful and deeply moving. It's the one great thing I got out of English grad school.
subject of "photography" is incidental; instead, individual photos dominate. Camera Lucida is a
book about loss & grief, mortality, and love. It
is highly elliptical and idiosyncratic ("rambling"
to some), beautiful and deeply moving. It's the one great thing I got out of English grad school.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Wonderful book - terrible printing quality
Barthes' book is eloquent and full of insight. However, this 2010 paperback edition is awful . . . the paper is cheap and scratchy and feels like it won't last. Read more
Published 6 days ago by TheStranger
Not worth the book's beautiful production values.
By production values I mean the beauty of the physical form of this book itself. Between the lovely covers, I can quickly sum up the contents as follows: much ado about nothing. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Kenneth C
Great for a photographers collection, but not for all
Quite an interesting documentary of photography by Barthes. I think books like this, and Sontag, are interesting to read as they help us gain perspectives from photography from... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Stephen Pellerine
DEEP AND MEANINGFUL
A tried and true essay of many years. Not the sort of book you can read during the TV commercials, but well worth the effort.
Published 22 months ago by Mr. Paul E. Wayland
A true classic worth visiting
Written shortly after his mother's death there is a very dark and mortal tone in this reading. Roland Barthes refers to life and death heavily throughout the book and the ongoing... Read more
Published on August 18, 2009 by Damien T. Franco
camera lucida
Great book for ALL photographers. It is out of print and available on here for a great price. Everytime I have read it, it offers new insight on how I view photography
Published on February 3, 2009 by Matthew E. Lavere
Excellent Book!
I got it a few weeks ago, it is an excellent edition, eventhough is at a very good price it has a very good printing quality, nice paper (thick an white) and very good... Read more
Published on January 9, 2009 by I. Fuenmayor
confession
i want to plug in the revolution (digital) to this book, in the style of mad libs.
meanwhile i haven't read camera lucida for a while.
meanwhile i haven't read camera lucida for a while.
Published on September 15, 2008 by Ariel Goldberg
Just this..
The only disparaging thing I can say about this book is that it caused me to purchase a better dictionary.
Published on February 28, 2008 by M. Morris
shocked
I am somewhat stunned and dismayed by the negative reviews of this book. In fact, it has seem to elicit a sense of vitriol in some.
It is a brilliant book. Read more
It is a brilliant book. Read more
Published on July 15, 2007 by pename
Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
One day, quite some time ago, I happened on a photograph of Napoleon's youngest brother Jerome, taken in 1852. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
certain photographs, blind field Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Winter Garden Photograph, New York New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
One day, quite some time ago, I happened on a photograph of Napoleon's youngest brother Jerome, taken in 1852. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
certain photographs, blind field Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Winter Garden Photograph, New York New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 15
books:
See all 15 books this book cites
100
books
cite this book:
See all 100 books citing this book
- Empire of Signs by Roland Barthes in Front Matter
- The Grain of the Voice: Interviews 1962-1980 by Roland Barthes in Front Matter
- The Responsibility of Forms: Critical Essays on Music, Art, and Representation by Roland Barthes in Front Matter
- The Semiotic Challenge by Roland Barthes in Front Matter
- Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes in Front Matter
See all 15 books this book cites
- Living with His Camera by Jane Gallop on 19 pages
- The Photography Reader by Liz Wells on 9 pages
- Image & Imagination by Martha Langford on 9 pages
- Basic Critical Theory for Photographers by Ashley la Grange on 9 pages
- Gilles Deleuze and the Ruin of Representation by Dorothea Olkowski on 6 pages
See all 100 books citing this book
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