Response to Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography

It’s interesting while reading the excerpts from “Camera Lucida: Reflections on the Photograph”, that the first thing I notice is the capitalization of the word Photograph. It becomes a proper noun. Denoting it as a particular thing. A thing that affects us in ways that we try to understand. Almost like a being, a self. The amazement with the invention of photography has lessened over the years, but the wonder and reactions it produces hasn’t.

The excerpts ask why do we like one photograph over the other? Is it interest? The author calls the attraction to certain photographs “advenience” or “adventure”. “This picture advenes me, that one doesn’t”. I agree with this.

Looking at a photograph can take you outside of your reality that you’re currently living in, and into the one captured by the photograph. You are now the photographer, not the viewer. Like reading a good book, not wanting to put it down, the photograph allows you to relate to the subject or object that has been captured. It allows memory and relationships to be formed. This is why we like certain photos more than others. Culture allows us to do this. Culture and visual culture. When viewing, our mind is trying to relate, accessing memories that resemble what has been captured by the photo. These memories will either be good, bad or indifferent, triggering our reaction to photos: good, bad or indifferent.