Finding My “Punctum”
When first given the challenge of finding a private photograph and determining what the studium and the punctum would be I thought that this would be a breeze. How hard could it be? In my head, floods of images that I have taken in the past years came rushing through; I thought I had a punctum in each one of them. So as I sat, trawling through piles of photographs I was in shock when not even the one I had thought to be my most sentimental photograph did not (in the words of Barthes) “prick me”. Photographs bring back memories, and that it did however it did not bring back any emotions. I felt no pain, no happiness, I just remembered. How could this be? My most treasured photograph and all it had to offer was studium, a memory that I would have remembered with or without the photograph. Am I “puctumless”? Would I never have a relationship with a photograph similar to Barthes? I didn’t accept this. I searched for days on end for that perfect photograph and found it. It’s a badly taken photograph, with three people centred in the middle of the frame smiling, which would be part of the studium. They look happy. The Studium, to me would also be the red fabric draped strangely in the back of the area, the grey block on the left hand side which is distracting looks like a part of a car seat, just an attribute to the badly taken photograph. One of the people is wearing a “Q8 Oils sign” so we could interpret that this person has links to that company, either he directly works for them or because of how young he looks it’s more likely a relative works for them. The way in which they all are cuddled together shows that they were at that point quite close (relationship wise). There’s also evidence of another person, the photographer. This photograph was taken in a car from the front seat looking back. It’s a dark photograph and looks like it was taken at night. There is no date on the photograph so it’s hard to determine when this was taken just from the photograph. One thing I noticed which would probably be considered a studium was the fact that all three of the people in the photograph were wearing red, which makes me wonder whether it was planned of just coincidental? Had it been planned it would emphasise the relationship the three had.
The red fabric in the back brings on the punctum for this photograph. This is a photograph that was taken in May 2003 on a trip to Russia; it was taken the first night we arrived. We had all decided to go out to partake in some underage drinking (of course) and decided to split up and take taxis. It was freezing, I remember to this day the chill, it reached your bones. But that “chill” is not my punctum, that is yet to come. So it was Gabriela, Luca, Dusan and myself that got in one taxi. The red fabric in the back was the Soviet Union flag, the hammer, the sickle, and the star. Dusan who spoke little Russian (more than any of us did) sat in the front in order to try to communicate to the driver and Gabriela, Luca and I sat in the back. And this is where the punctum comes to play. Our driver was psychotic, raging about the Soviet Union in a combination of Russian and English while swerving in between cars at insane speeds. Not to mention the icy roads worried us. We feared for our lives. It was when our driver had stopped briefly in traffic that Dusan turned around and said cheerfully “We’re going to die. This is your last photograph, look pretty” in the hopes that the driver would just think he saying, “say cheese!” As mentioned before the punctum in this photograph is brought on by the red fabric, without that this would just be another photograph with Luca and Gabriela (which I have lots) in a car. My punctum is the mix of excitement and fear we all felt. We were all happy, and laughing but our hearts did skip a beat every time that near miss happened (which was often). When I look at this photograph, it’s strange to say but my heard races, I feel as if I am there all over again. Sitting in the back on a taxi with 3 of my close friends and a crazed Russian man driving. I can feel the Gabriela’s grip on my arm (which bruised). This photograph proved me “punctumfull” and I’m satisfied. Since then I have lost contact with Luca and Gabriel, and I wonder what they’re up too.
When first given the challenge of finding a private photograph and determining what the studium and the punctum would be I thought that this would be a breeze. How hard could it be? In my head, floods of images that I have taken in the past years came rushing through; I thought I had a punctum in each one of them. So as I sat, trawling through piles of photographs I was in shock when not even the one I had thought to be my most sentimental photograph did not (in the words of Barthes) “prick me”. Photographs bring back memories, and that it did however it did not bring back any emotions. I felt no pain, no happiness, I just remembered. How could this be? My most treasured photograph and all it had to offer was studium, a memory that I would have remembered with or without the photograph. Am I “puctumless”? Would I never have a relationship with a photograph similar to Barthes? I didn’t accept this. I searched for days on end for that perfect photograph and found it. It’s a badly taken photograph, with three people centred in the middle of the frame smiling, which would be part of the studium. They look happy. The Studium, to me would also be the red fabric draped strangely in the back of the area, the grey block on the left hand side which is distracting looks like a part of a car seat, just an attribute to the badly taken photograph. One of the people is wearing a “Q8 Oils sign” so we could interpret that this person has links to that company, either he directly works for them or because of how young he looks it’s more likely a relative works for them. The way in which they all are cuddled together shows that they were at that point quite close (relationship wise). There’s also evidence of another person, the photographer. This photograph was taken in a car from the front seat looking back. It’s a dark photograph and looks like it was taken at night. There is no date on the photograph so it’s hard to determine when this was taken just from the photograph. One thing I noticed which would probably be considered a studium was the fact that all three of the people in the photograph were wearing red, which makes me wonder whether it was planned of just coincidental? Had it been planned it would emphasise the relationship the three had.
The red fabric in the back brings on the punctum for this photograph. This is a photograph that was taken in May 2003 on a trip to Russia; it was taken the first night we arrived. We had all decided to go out to partake in some underage drinking (of course) and decided to split up and take taxis. It was freezing, I remember to this day the chill, it reached your bones. But that “chill” is not my punctum, that is yet to come. So it was Gabriela, Luca, Dusan and myself that got in one taxi. The red fabric in the back was the Soviet Union flag, the hammer, the sickle, and the star. Dusan who spoke little Russian (more than any of us did) sat in the front in order to try to communicate to the driver and Gabriela, Luca and I sat in the back. And this is where the punctum comes to play. Our driver was psychotic, raging about the Soviet Union in a combination of Russian and English while swerving in between cars at insane speeds. Not to mention the icy roads worried us. We feared for our lives. It was when our driver had stopped briefly in traffic that Dusan turned around and said cheerfully “We’re going to die. This is your last photograph, look pretty” in the hopes that the driver would just think he saying, “say cheese!” As mentioned before the punctum in this photograph is brought on by the red fabric, without that this would just be another photograph with Luca and Gabriela (which I have lots) in a car. My punctum is the mix of excitement and fear we all felt. We were all happy, and laughing but our hearts did skip a beat every time that near miss happened (which was often). When I look at this photograph, it’s strange to say but my heard races, I feel as if I am there all over again. Sitting in the back on a taxi with 3 of my close friends and a crazed Russian man driving. I can feel the Gabriela’s grip on my arm (which bruised). This photograph proved me “punctumfull” and I’m satisfied. Since then I have lost contact with Luca and Gabriel, and I wonder what they’re up too.
