To expound on my opinion that good photographs are simply examples of good studium rather than Barthes’ punctum, which seems to imply that nothing so obvious can give pleasure, I would cite the following photograph. Here is the Dutchwoman Lara Stone in Calvin Klein’s ‘Fall’ 2010 campaign, shot by the duo Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott. The sharpness and clarity, both very literal and figurative, of this woman – centre frame, lit high key against a dark backdrop without sacrificing a cent of the tonal difference above and below those jutting cheekbones, in sculptural attire – that is the point. There is no room for a punctum. An image like this is not created on the hoof; nothing in it is there by chance or happy accident; her hair is wet with product; her pose is statuesque. Even if the once piquant gap between Stone’s front teeth figured it would not count; with it she has started a fashion for diastema widening brackets among models and no one books her, the trendsetter, only to be surprised by it anymore; it must be considered and it must be considered studium by Barthes. The picture says look at this pale stripe of alabaster flesh running down the centre of the frame; this is this garment’s negative space. I am not unhappy to oblige; I think the image is beautiful. Barthes sought some differentiator for photography from painting and that is why the un- or less contrived is so important to him but my taste runs to painting and sculpture too and that’s why I am more of a studium man.

Reading:

‘Camera Lucida’ by Roland Barthes

Lara Stone and Georgia Jagger make gap teeth the new face of fashion Life and style The Observer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/24/gap-teeth-face-of-fashion