Roland Barthes' "La Chambre Claire" is the attempt to realize the essence of photography. But what is puzzling in his article is the fissure between the first and the second halves. He doesn't show us the most important photograph of his mother, saying it is important only for him and of mere indifference to others.
In this paper, I want to look over these points in view of three different kinds of photography: the so - called photogram, general photography and radiography. Probably the differences come from the intensity of the relation between a photograph and the object it represents. It seems that the characteristics of a photograph that Barthes emphasizes are photogram and radiography. The two emphasize the fact that the object existed in front of the camera, what he calls, "that has been," not the resemblance between a photograph and its object. To Barthes, the resemblance isn't the essence of photography.
It is difficult to explain the essence of photography that can't be expressed by an analogical image. But the word "haptique," used by Gilles Deleuze in "Logic de la Sensation," gives us a hint of approaching that difficalt question. The meaning of "haptique" is touching with the eye. According to this, the essence of photography is not its visibility but its touchablilty through its appearance. This was put into practice by Barthes, using words not to present an image, as a photograph can, but to present the essence of the object. We have to touch the essence without looking.
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