The first thing I read was ‘How Do We Read a Photograph’ by Graham Clarke written in 1997. This was interesting as it provided a nice insight into professional photography and how photos can be analysed and understood. In this reading was important reference to the Studium and Punctum of an image, which lead me to ‘Camera Lucida’. In chapter 2 there is interesting analysis of a range of photographers work, with Lee Friedlander being of particular interest to me. Clarke highlights how “Friedlander thus creates a photographic space which makes critical analysis and cultural meaning the world of its imagining”, essentially meaning that Friedlander’s photos rely on analysis and culture to create a deeper meaning to an image. In this sense I too could create images that comment on and rely on cultural understanding.
‘Camera Lucida’ by Roland Barthes is a relatively small book and also easy to read. It provides a great understanding of photography talking about the Studium and Punctum but also the essence of portrait work ( and photography in general) and how hard it is for a photographer to get a natural image of a person. The Studium of an image is like an initial interpretation, everything that is in the image. In the case of Matthew Brady’s ‘Matthew Brady Standing by a Tree 1865’ the studium is the collection of soldiers and the camp site. The punctum however, is the pinch or the kick, that extra twist within a photo that creates a deeper meaning to the image. Going back to Brady standing by a tree the punctum is him, placing himself within his own image to twist the classic understanding of wartime photography. This will be very important for my own photography.
I also read some of ‘Photography’ by John Ingledew. This was surprising technical, a lot of stuff about the history of cameras but also about how they work both with film and digital, exploring the technical side of aperture and shutter speed with useful pictures and diagrams. The aperture diagram is particularly good and explains very well what changing the aperture does to an image but also what happens in the camera when you change it. It makes a lot more sense when understanding that you can only put your aperture so low when you realise that lowering the aperture increases the size of the hole and so is limited. This also helps to explain how lowering the aperture lets in more light and, for me at least, really allowed me to get a grip of this in my head.
Photography - Sam Grant 