Benjamin, Barthes and the Singularity of Photography

by Kathrin Yacavone

Benjamin, Barthes and the Singularity of Photography presents two of the most important intellectual figures of the twentieth century in a new comparative light. Pursuing hitherto unexplored aspects of Benjamin's and Barthes's engagement with photography, it provides new interpretations of familiar texts and analyzes material which has only recently become available. It argues that despite the different historical, philosophical and cultural contexts of their work, Benjamin and Barthes engage with similar issues and problems that photography uniquely poses, including the relationship between the photograph and its beholder as a confrontation between self and other, and the dynamic relation between time, subjectivity, memory and loss. Each writer emphasizes the singular event of the photograph's apprehension and its ethical and existential aspects rooted in the power and poignancy of photographic images. Mapping the complex relationship between photographic history and theory, cultural criticism and autobiography, this book will be of considerable interest not only to historians and theorists of photography but also to scholars working in literary and cultural studies.

Genres: Philosophy

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Wakinglife]

"Proust'un tam aksine, Benjamin spontane hafızanın zihinsel imgelerinin fotoğraflar gibi olduklarını iddia eder, ..."

*sua sponte

[Uğur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shutter or Trigger; the result is always Punctum

Walter Benjamin has an article called "On Mimetic Talent". At the time this article was written, it was a very Decadent article among thinkers. Because Benjamin has revealed the mimesis effect by naming a field that has not yet been named that will have a very important impact on the present and tomorrow of man. Accordingly, Benjamin suggests that experiences and the dialectic of expression are established through mimesis. Although Habermas agrees with this, Baudelaire predicts that the field of experience and communication of modern man is formed only by establishing a mimetic connection with the objects covered by the production of methane. Mimesis involves unconscious processes such as ideas, behavior, language, and even telepathy. Benjamin, who also defines films consisting of photographs and photographs as the unconscious field, says that there is a mimesis effect in photographs in a technical sense. In addition, by not ignoring the ability of photography to be a powerful propaganda weapon of the government, he has also added the concept of "führer cult" to photography in the scientific sense of communication.

Photography is the most precious of the inventions caused by the desire for eternity of man, who is the only living species that lives with the awareness that he is going to die. As a living being who thinks and knows information, there is a deep philosophy in taking photos, as in everything about a person... While taking a photo, it is the desire to remember an admired, beloved moment in the background of the act of eternalizing a moment that is a detail in the real flow of life at that moment, by being detached from the flow. In fact, the whole event is based on the act of remembering in this will. Because although the photo frame stands alone as the main theme from the moment it was taken, it is actually a detail. The person who remembers will remember not as much as the photo fits, but the area that is outside the frame and completes 360 degrees. Remembering the non-photographic area is realized thanks to the small details inside the photo frame. Barthes is Punctum about this
he came up with his theory and created the field that constitutes the philosophy of photography.

The author Yacavone, who has discussed the unity of the two photographic philosophies based on these two foundations. Although the book has slipped a little into academic language, it is quite valuable that people who take photos like crazy nowadays have found a name for the meaning of life.

[Nicholas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A comparison in the sense of explaining both Benjamin's & Barthes' view on photography. However, not comparative. Barthes' view was well understood, but Benjamin's left a limitless to be desired.