Roland Barthes' Camera Lucida, Chapters 1-5: Death in Photography | FA ep. 15

In this video I summarize Roland Barthe's first five chapters of his seminal book on photography: Camera Lucida, from 1980.
In my opinion, these first few chapter's main idea is the presence of Death in photography, something Barthes develops futher later in this same book.
Here's a link to LM Salcasas' article on Artificial Intelligence art:
theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/lonely-surfaces-on-ai-generated-images
This video contains examples of work by Henry Wessel, Philip Lorca DiCorcia, Jeff Wall, Alex Webb, Elliot Erwitt and Giuseppe Primoli.
I borrowed footage of Noboyushi Araki's behind the scenes to illustrate a way of interacting with a subject off this video:
kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYO7Xmtrfpilhbc
The tiny snippets of Platon and Annie Leibowitz are off these videos respectively:
kzbin.info/www/bejne/eHXToqdjncZ_gq8
kzbin.info/www/bejne/hHe8eZmZid6Iaq8
Music: Flatlands 3rd
Alarm Cycle
Dognell
The Caspian Sea
Blossom
All by Blue Dot Sessions

[@ondrejuhlik418]

awesome video!!

[@NM-vs5lg]

Thanks man ❤

[@martylevenson7062]

Interesting: thanks! Somehow I don't connect with Barthes the way I do with Sontag. Eg., the idea that a photo of Napolean's brother's eyes is moving or significant because they had gazed at Napoleon seems absurd...maybe even fetishistic. Sontag's concerns mostly pull me in, but Barthe's (admittedly that's based on the little I've read - though I did get on better with Mythologies) mostly repel me. So, good to get this snapshot of this writing. All the best in the coming year!

[@FlashbackArrest]

Thank you so much for your comment! Yeah I do admit it's a little fetishistic, but my interest in photography is first and foremost sentimental and irrational, so he taps into that. I see these videos as an annex to my practice, not really part of photography in general, but one of the many ways to stay engaged and inspired. Ideally I'd like to forget all of this when shooting. Mythologies is clearer and more detached, I also like it. But there's more than 20 years in between, I hear his voice in Camera Lucida warmer and less cynical.