Barthes

In Camera Lucida, Barthes sets for himself quite a task: "to learn at all costs what Photography was 'in itself,' by what essential feature it was to be distinguished from the community of images." This drive to pin down photography derived from the fact that he "wasn't so sure that Photography existed" (1). What Barthes discovers, however, is that it is perhaps impossible to speak about the photograph, beyond, and because of, the fact that the photograph is "never distinguished from its referent" (5) and is even "invisible" (6). From there, Barthes launches into an analysis of over a dozen photographs, using a framework (studium, punctum, adventure, etc.) constructed beforehand based on his own subjective relationship to photographs. Thus, Barthes attempts to divine from the specific (a photograph) clues that might lead to understanding the universal (the photograph, Photography).

This method led Barthes to at least one insight into photography that I thought particularly interesting, an idea that seems very related to his ideas about myth. Barthes writes that "Since every photograph is contingent...Photography cannot signify...except by assuming a mask." For instance, a photograph of"a face" becomes "the product of a society and its history" (34). Barthes has little faith in the ability of the mask as a social critique. He writes that "The Photograph of the Mask is in fact critical enough to disturb...but it is also too discreet...to constitute an authentic and effective social critique." This is compounded by the fact that "the photograph whose meaning...is too impressive is quickly deflected; we consume it aesthetically, not politically" (36).

I can't come up with a dozen examples of photographs that I think refute these claims, but I know of at least one. See:

http://thenakedvoid.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/kevin_carter.jpg

In fact, quite a few of Kevin Carter's photographs have their meanings right out in front while we do not consume them aesthetically. I can't help look at that photograph in a political light.