Images and Meaning

Comparison Essay # 99842

Art > Photography
English > Comparison

Images and Meaning

This paper explores Roland Barthes' and Victor Burgin's analysis of photographic images.

1,223 words () | 3 sources | MLA | 2007 United States

Paper Summary:

The paper presents a comparative analysis of two images from Roland Barthes' Camera Lucida photographic images; Andre Kertesz' "The Violinist's Tune" and Nicephore Niepce's "The Dinner Table". The paper shows how an artist such as Victor Burgin would disagree with Barthes' view that photographs lack codes and would contend that even innocuous images can contain complex ranges of political and ideological codes.

From the Paper:

"Barthes' reading of The Violinist's Tune is particularly interesting for it allows us to understand how Barthes conceives of the reading of images as often a highly personalized affair. While he situates his reading in terms of his theoretical apparatus of studium and punctum, it is important to note that his response to this image cannot be precisely determined by this theoretical frame. Barthes defines the concept of studium as a taste or interest in a thing: "a kind of general, enthusiastic commitment" (Barthes 26)."

Sample of Sources Used:

Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida. Trans. Richard Howard.New York: Hill and Wang, 1980.
Burgin, Victor. In "Appropriations." Accessed: October 10, 2006.http://courses.washington.edu/hypertxt/cgi-bin/12.228.185.206/html/wordsinimages/appropriations.html
Burgin, Victor. "Photographic Practice and Art Theory."In Thinking Photography.