The document discusses key concepts from Roland Barthes' work on photography. It introduces Barthes' concepts of "studium" and "punctum", where studium refers to the photographer's intentions that allow the viewer to understand the context, while punctum is a unique detail that surprises and moves the viewer. It also notes that Barthes believed photographs cannot signify or contain meaning on their own, and can only do so by assuming social or historical meanings.

1. Reading Roland
Barthes:
The hardest one of the bunch!
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2. “Studium”
and
“Punctum”
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3. “To recognize the studium is
inevitably to encounter the
photographer’s intentions... which
allows me to discover the
Operator” (27-28)
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4. “The second element will break (or
punctuate) the studium... I shall
therefore call punctum; for
punctum is also: sting, speck, little
hole—and also a cast of the dice. A
photograph’s punctum is that
accident which pricks me (also
bruises me, is poignant to
me)” (26-27).
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5. Monday, October 3, 11

6. “Since every photograph is
contingent (and therefore outside
of meaning), Photography cannot
signify... except by assuming a
mask... what makes a face into the
product of a society and its
history” (34).
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7. Monday, October 3, 11