Friday, October 15, 2010
Labyrinth and Thread
In class Thursday, we discussed 4 case studies that was analyzed in the Mitchell essay. The case study that I was assigned was Labyrinth and Thread: Camera Lucida by Barthes. It basically discussed the relationship captions and images have with each other with using Barthes' book of photographs of his mother as an example. What really caught my attention is how the photographs that Barthes, used from other photographers, all relates back to his mother. How could random pictures relate back to one's mother? The answer is perception. What one person sees in a picture is different from another one's view of a picture. The captions that Barthes that describes or analyzes the picture is the "thread" that leads the observer through his book of photographs the "labyrinth". If you apply that to all pictures, you can relate that to a number of things.
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I was also surprized that the picture of his mother is at the center of all pictures. But one thing i didn't get about this metaphor is we did found a way out but how are we suppose to find a way in to the center of labyrinth?
ReplyDeleteIn class, I believe one comment in class about finding a way through the labyrinth was the text beside the picture. To answer your question, I think Barthes' text lead us straight to the center of the labyrinth by using his text and pictures together. I think the center of the labyrinth is what you make of Camera Lucida.
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