Books by Roland Bare (Greer wes LUCIDA REFLECTIONS ON PHOTOGRAPHY REFLECT ON ‘A Batches Reader (Camera Lucid Civica Esays ‘The Eifel Tower and Other Mythologies lement of Semiology ‘The Eepire of Signs ‘The Fashion Sperm ‘The Grain ofthe Voice Image Masie ‘Text, a chan Baar lhes New Citi Eye ‘Racine The Plane ofthe Text, The Reson of Fors oer Bates The Ree of Langage \ Sede / Fone Layla | “he Semi Challenge Siz Weting Degie Ze0 pRansLATED BY RICHARD HOWARD W Hi anv Wane ‘The Noonday Press New YorkContents Part ONE Specialy of te Photograph 3 2 The Photogreph Unclauspable 4 3 Emotion as Departare 8 2 oprRaTOR, SPECTRUM ard SPECTATOR 9 3 He WhoIs Photographed 10 The spucraton: Chaos of Tastes 6 5 Photography as Adventure 6 8 A Catual Phenomenology 20 9 Dacliy 23 x sTUDIUM and FUNCTOM 25 re Studia 7 12 Tolsform 28 13 ToPaint 30 14 To Surprire 3 15 To Signity 34 16 To Waken Desire 38 17 The Unery Photograph ° TB Coprerence ofthe sruDtUm and the PONCTUM 42, to PONCTUM: Petal Feature o 25 Involuntary Festare a23 24 Satort “Aftersho Pact and Silence Blind Fil Palivode Paxr Two 25 “One evening..." History as Separation To Recognize ‘The Winter Garden Photograph The Linle Gi) Aciatne The Femly, the Mosher The Pose ‘The Leminows Rays, Color Amazement ‘Authentication Seas Flat Death Time ar PUNCTOM Private/Pablic To Serminize Resemblance Lineege The “ai The Look Madnet, Pity The Photograph Tamed ” st 35 60 103 106 vor 5 nTgig One day, gute sme time agp, 1 happene on Dye ere eeRER in ye An le te, amma pect te nse“ Ia EE aro oper omen ‘SUT Sh aman bre oo need oni hoe to shat it, nor even understand i (i Tse oaches of solitude), I forgot about ic My interest Phomgraphy wok « more coltural ram, I decided I tiked Phocogsaphy js opposition 0 the Cinema, from which 1 ponethcess failed to separate it, This question grew insis- fear Iwas overcome by an “nological” desie: wanted, Seneca cos wha Progeny ws "in ili} by what exsncal feature ie was to be distinguished front Eo a eat inges Sach die ely meat at beyond the evidence provided by technology and use, and despite its tcemendavs contemporary expansion, T trast sure that Phorogrephy existed, chat it had s “Be (3 A ,‘Who could help me? From the fist step, thac of clasication (we ‘must surely clasify, verify by samples, if we want 10 constitute « corpus), Phorography evades us. The vs ous distributions we impose upon it are in fact either em. al (Profesionals / Amateurs), or rhetorical (Land scapes / Objects / Portrsics / Nudes), ot ele aesthetic (Realism / Pictorials, in any case external to the ob- ject, without relation tits esence, which cen only be (i it exss a all) he New of which ie has been the advene\, for these cassiiGitions might very well be applied to othe, colder forms of representation, We might say that Pho. ‘ography is unclassifiable. Then I wondered whet the source ofthis disorder might be. \ Tie ishing found was hi What the Phoxogeaph aS [reproduces wo inniey bes occursed only once: dhe Phot \ Ny )\i}graph mechanically repeats what could never be repeated Fede for he ste of something he: the Pheopegh slays lads the corps T eed back © the Boy Isat 1s the absolave Petal, the sign Contingency, race dad somehow stupid, che Wis (this PhawSeeaph, tnd not Photography), ia shor, what Tacan Gl the Tuché, te Occasion, the Encounter, che Real, init inde fasigable expresion. Ta order to designate reality, lexitentilly. In the Photogeaph, the event is never tran ve sen sy eet wes al ets an eh a of ng ti ong ta aaa atin es edges vet et png ig meting = a tw ye sting ee: ot a cetacean) pi SE eae ye cone of whe aaa eer nto, Se Yo: Pog wre imme you i "sk, this is may Broher; thie is se as child” ets the Phot ah is never anything baton anishon-f see FReet lees WB; ie points « finger ae certain vires, ‘and eannot escape this pure dictic language. This is why, tesofar a iis lice to speae of « photograph, ic seed t0 mn jst as improbable opel te Paocoraphs {pei pooper, ia ec, i never ding fromiteeferen (from what it epesen), oa Feat i thos immediately ot generally Gsingished from its refer aoe Canis the cae For every ote image, encumbered — "4 eek foam the sare and because of is snas—by the way in hich sabe sila) 1 ot imped Cite dhe pomgapie sie (eran profesional do SS), bo egies 2 secondary action of knowledge oro ‘ehecion By aaa, the Phtogeaph (for convenien’s ‘Ske, eros acepe thie anivesl, whch forthe moment veer only to the Glee repetition of contingency) as fometing tasologial aboot i 1 eis» sous ts, fond inxactably @ pipe Ie it gp if eho Phoeograph always 4 cneves its relerene sith itself} both affecrad By Te wine ‘ovectte. x wey pi,Ruteee = ana ‘morous or(funereal immobility, moving world} chey are [os ae athe very heart of the alued togethed lib by limb, lke ‘ait and the corpse in certain tortures; | oct hn pi fh st, inks see , srs { hin, econtng Lo rites) which navign in convoy, a thtagh waited Dyan ena coisa The Photograph ieloge oats of laminae objec whe eo leer nts be cep nant windy te babe ea Fi ae nape, te scene, ant why not, Goad and Ei dese Lodi ber dies we tan coer ne ns nes (Tei yee ow dt ths sberaes of te ele Brace devin alway bring the wold proere he tonne 1s fee 4 king for). SM (i ty iy Yoo photograph without something of someone) inl Photography in the vase donde of objcs—of alse objec in the wat: why choose (wy howogrph) this objet, this moment, racer than sone crhes? Phorogrephy is uncasisble becuse there ie no reason (0 mark this or that ofits ocurences it apse, de, e_Pe#bs to become as cade, a8 cenain, af noble as ¢ Eee, 5 S180, which would ard it scass to the dignity of ela “VC guage: but for there tobe # tigi EE HT mar pried of « pinciple of masking, phovogaphy i igs ~ which do's tke, which swrm as milk does. Whatever it Oy seein vay TT he on Phos "C1" books which del with nach les mame ecco 6 ace echnical; i onder to “see” che photographic signs, ‘hey are obliged to focus at very close range, Others are historical or sociological; in otder to observe the total phenomenon of the Photograph, these sce obliged to focus at 2 great distance. I realized with ieitaton chat none discussed precitely the phowographs which interest tne, which give me pleasure or emotion. What did I care about the rules of competition of the photographic land: scape, of, a the other end, about che Photograph as fam. jy rte? ach time I would read something about Phoeog- raphy, I would think of some phoograph I loved, and this made me foriout. Myself, fF seer only the referent, the ested object, the beloved body;(bue an importunate Soice (the voice of knowledge, SF iene) then adjured Ine, in a severe tone: “Get back to Phowography. What you ate seeing here and what makes you suffer belongs © the category ‘Amateus Photogsaps; dea with by 8 ceam. of sociologists; nothing but che erace of a social protocol of integration, intended co reasert the Family, ete” Yee petite; another, louder voice urged me co dismiss such fociofogcal commentary; looking at certain photographs, T wanted to be a primitive, without culture, $o I went 08, not dating to reduce the worlds countess photographs, ‘ny more then 4 extend several of mine to Photography: in short, I found myself at an impasse and, so e speak, “scien”‘Thea I decided that chi disorder and this lemme, ME! corresponded toa discomfort { had always suffered evita fom he unesiness of being 2 sab ween £0 lense languages [ene expressive, the other crcl; and at che tore Yo heat of tis eral language, between several dicoarsés, ‘those of sociology, of semiology, and of psychoanalysie— but dh by lima disatisfaction with ll of them, twas | bearing witness to che only sore ching hat was ia me | (however nave it might be):(s desperate resistance (© any reductive stem For each time, having rested t=) ac haguge Shue eps coh are f Inedenng and thereby tending to redaction end cept ‘mand, I would gently eave iad seek elsewhere? I bepen ‘© speak differently. It was bette, once and for all, to make my protesacion of singularity ito virte—to ey rmakiag whit Nicasche called the "ege's ancient sov. Po gn” in an heat principle. Sot resolve to sate En ingtity with 20 more than s few phorogaphs, che AE cost as sure exe for meSNething 10 do with « Senseo. corpuit: only some bodies Inthis (after sll) conventional ebare beoween ieice and abjectvigg]| had atsived at ‘his curious notions Why mGRTT We be, somehow, a ew science For ery A matbesis singularis (and no longer tmiversalis§ So I decided 10 take myself a8 Ietinor fo all Ptr Sting fy few ee: Shree, Geenfod 8/ vy, ral without which there woUTd Be n0 | Fong, sry he a Fam ny fonts bee AR Rima 4 (rewseagen aiden Eki. 3f ees wh soe of howe co ata mpi te se BN cit cs ion tt Ls (or of three emotions, oof intentions); Yo do, to under took. YFhe O a %, “Fhe Photographer. The Spactalor 1 otselves, all of ws nd of litle simolacrum, any eidplon emis referent, a kind of litle pena objec offre pr the Phovo > Ryo “specace” and ads to ic ear enter " Ros i horographs the ap go, Tenrible thing which is there in every phocoste og turn of the dead swum Ste Ope of eps ws hard 0 mead Ts 00 SS to investigate it: Tam not « photographer, aot even \ Momteus photographer: too impatient for that: Tutt sR. tight away what T bave produced (Polaroid? Pun, but ae tating exept when a ret powgrapher & io CT Sere) Tighe suppose dae the Operator's esi fi see the eare of Phorogaphyacering yf SH sMhcbhowsrapher) had rome season ro che “Tele ye R pase 9 WARYfoe hele” (compe) dough which he looks, in, tame, and petspecivines when he want “lke” (wo sofa Techokely, Photogaphy is a tie teases ite din proces one of chem ne: a str of lg on tibet oher of ep Gnd: the foro fhe ge ephn a deve. cme tt te Specs Pnreon cede ily ow pen, enh chemin tlavon ofthe objet rom which I mere by ey ‘io te sa) and ht the etn Ph {i ony ke he fel cg holo he mes aie Bate di ecto en ‘ht cn) Tol or pees ang erp ‘5 Leon hwo thaw (hem a ‘itt Phoosaphyacordngeoste Pompe 1 ‘Posen only evo experience: taro the shen ictand aco te aecrohervng { 5] 4k can happen thac Tam observed without know ing i and again I cannot speak of By speak ofthis experience, 7 © [have determined to be guided by the con. Housness of my feelings. Bat very often (400 often, tony fare) Thue ben photographed and knew ic Now, once fel nsf observed by the lens, eveything change, 7) ‘spasttuee mpelf in the process of “posing I insane ‘ously make another body Tar rasta ml in vnc ina image This eaplaicen nor 2 ro Gaescte [Wes yo rate Rernte Pas segs Bed coe: fo tt he Phorgegh ren y bod of met fies ie, according 0 is capsice (apology of this mocifes- cus power: certain Communans paid with dei lives for theit willingness or even thee eagerness 10 pose on the barricades: defected, they were recognized by Thiers police and shot, almost everyone) Poting ia front of the lens (I mean: knowing I am pasing, even letngly), I do not ssk so mach as that (at Teas, not for the moment). No doubt its metaphorically OO su. thar derive my extence from she photographer. Baty] though this dependence iv an imagiaryone (and fm the pt imagesepertite), 1 experince it wih thes push ofan uncerninflinon: an iage—my image— Su be generued: will 1 be bor fom an enipabetc Invidual o from a "good se"? If aly I coud “ome on paper a8 on 8 clas! canvas, eodowed with & [pote expresion thought, inelligent, ep short T could be “pune” (by Tien) of deawe (By Clo) Dt ince what Tanto base cprred is late moral tev and nota miiy, and-sice Phooaaphy i 20 thing bur sue excep in se hand of he very geet pores, Ido now bow 0 work upon my skis fom Gin T cite eo “ee dif” over my ips and in my tye fant sie which T mean be “idefiable” a hich Ligh age ices of mt ture, my amased consciousness of thewhole photographic sual: [end jel Be we gL pa, T kzow T ‘am posing, I want you to know ere tae, bat (to Shoce de cede) this aldtonal meg ust 820 “Sev te precio sence of my indviealg: wha 1a, ong with & fomdeo Lt hoe Sh chyree (peta spare from any efgy. What I wang, in shot is that my (mobile) image, bufeted among a thousand shifting pho tographs, altering with situation and age, should always coincide with my (profound) “self; bu ic isthe contrary ‘that must be said: “mysell” never coincides with my ‘image; Tor it is the image which is heavy, motionless, Boon (which is why society sustains it), and “mmc” which i light, divided, dispersed; like + boteimp, “my: selP* doesn't hold sill, giggling in my je: if only Photog raphy could give me s neutil, anatomic body, 2 body which signifies nothing! Ales, I am doomed by (wel sey ~ meaning) Phoography always to have an exptession: my —_ Body neve ier desteeJho one can ave 0 me i my motes? For ics at inierene which eases che weight of the image—the Photomat thay turns ou int xii ipe, wanted by the poice—but love extreme love) ‘To see onset (ciferenty from in a mittot): onthe seale of Hizry, this action is een, the pained, dean, or miniaturized pore having been, unl the sad of Photography, limited posesion, ended moweover fo adverse soil and financial statas—and in any ce, 4 puined pores, howerer clo the resemblance (chit ‘het am ting prove) isnot photograph O24 hat 0 one bas though of the ditarbance (to clan) hich this new acon cae. I want a Hixxy of Lok ing, Fos the Phetgragh isthe advent of mye ss oer 4 canning. discon of consciousness from deny Bren ole: i was afore Photography tht men had the It 0 aoe tevin of the dole, erp | sal . ee ae ai enor Bas oie oe ey ta oe! Oe eee coy: t sai oH ea pa apiece emi Cota sh ae en ee Oo bj no bjee, and even, one might sy, ato a moe SS" SE ee ee ern om es ge bay nee a eh el ome ce net ep mesy coe no er peel fl aes Tow = five and divor exh 97, opps and See, imageepertoires intersect he {Soe Ira he Lum tthe ie he Tosh [om neato Lacie ‘ee sSamed kv, nd te oe He makes we 222 See oer wok fampe sion: tao ge) ‘not stop imitating myself, and because of this, each time I ) Bee mut) swept vei wer 1a on fey, tines gy, Coe (copa cea ghar), Io rm ofJmage-cperoie, the Photograph (che One I intend) rep ‘esents that very subtle moment whea, to tell the rath T > tm neither subject noe object but a subject who fels he is ei becoming an object: I then experience « micr-version of vccoons death (of parenthess):[Tam tuly becoming a specter ms The Phoeogeapher knows this very well, and himsclé fears (if only for commercial reasons) thie death in which his sescare will embalm me. Nothing would be funnier (if ‘one were noe is passive vitim, its patron, as Sade would sy) than the photographers” contortions to produce ef fects chat ae “lifelike”: wretched notions: they make me ose in front of my paintbrushes, they eake me outdoors (more “alive” than indoors), put me in front of sai. fase because « group of children is playing behind they notice a bench and immediately (whae « windfall!) make me sie down on ic As if che (tected) Photogre- ‘her muse exer himself tothe utmost to keep the Photo. sph from becoming Death, Bat I—already an objec, 1 do noe strogate {forese that I shall have to wake from this bad dream even more uacomforably; for what soci- ‘27 makes of my photograph, what it reads chee, Ido not know (in any case there are 60 many readings of the same face); bur when I discover myself nthe product of this operation, what I see i that I have become Total Timage, which is to say, Death in person; other—th ‘nase, person; other—the er do noe dispowsess"me oF mel, they cura me, ferociously, ino an obec, they put me at theit mercy, at | ‘hele dispowlj cased in a file, heady for the subtlest Cirse gem deeptions: one aay a exETeR phocographer tok ay Per sive ner epee yy of) shee dle ne Pah, bh 0 Clee ths nals enn ble) pity 1 Bele 1 could ed in i image te dices re ene beverement: for one Phsogephy had Stored me 0 mpl bu son feward Twat Sd his Rr poogeph on the cover of ample By thea | fev of png, {no Tongs hed anehing but «hose Ghanaian) coanenunes, a ener and repellent 0 | the ge th eho sd so Be of sy langue. | hp ong bt hace se time, where Iam not an image, an object. is my alight wo be a abject which I must procec.) Ulimacely, what [am seeking ia the photograph taken of me (the “intention” acording to wich I lok ati) i Death: Denth is che( dor hac Photograph. Hence, surangel, the only ting that Tolerate, hat | ike, eis familiar to me, when Tam photographed, isthe sound of the camera. Foe me, the Photographer's organ is not his tye Cahich terrifies me) but his finger: what is linked 0 the trigger ofthe lens, ro the metallic shifting ofthe plates (hen the cameca stil as such things). I Tove these me- chanical sounds in an sls voluptuous way, 28 ifn ehe ‘Photograph, chey were the very thing—and che only sing to which my deste clings, hele abrupt cic bresking through the motiferous Iyer of the Pose For me che poise of Time is noe sad: I love bells, clock, watches— ‘and [call that at frst phocographic implements were relaced techniques of eabinetmaking and the machinery Cy of precision: camera, in short, were cocks for seeing, Ge tnd perhaps in me someone very old still hears in the photographie mechenism the living sound of the wood [a5served in Photography—all practices and all sub- jects mixed up rogether—I was r0 rodiscover in a ‘The disorder which from the very frst Thad ob- ‘he photographs of the Spectator whom Iwas and whom I now wanted to investigate, 1 see photog days; they come. from the world ¢o me, without my ask ing; they are oniy “images,” their mode of appearance is heterogeneous. Yet, among thoke which had been se lected, evaluated, approved, collected in bums or mags: ines and which had thereby passed through the filter of culture, I realized due some provoked tng jubilation, if they refereed to a stiled center, an erotic or lacerating value bated in myself (however harmless the subjece may tnave appeared); and that others, on the contrary, were £0 indiferent to me that by dint of seeing them multiply, ike some weed, fel kind of aversion toward them, even of 3s everywhere, like everyone ese, now Fetceds Atirrition: there are moments whea I dese Photographs ‘what have To do with Aege’s old ree tras, with Pierse Bovche’s nudes, with Germaine Keull's double exposures (72-10 cite only the old names)? Farther: I realized chat 1 Ihave never liked all the pictares by any one photog hee: the only ching by Sciepite ther dlighes me (hut 4 ecstasy) is his most famous image (The HorseCar “Terminal,” New York, 1895); «certain picture by Map. plethorpe led me to think I had found “my” photog 16/ “only Seglicts mow femons photograph daihts meher bu hai don ke al f Mapplone, Hence I could toe acele tht sn hehe convesene when we wan © tlk hin, cle, a theta eoion Known a an ari el fee bp aryyynn tv mgs oy “vero” ti date hee aa’ Pasa = Ble heed sical boy of information rebellion, Nicaragua, and al the signs ofboth: weetched wnsiniformed soldiers, rained Yattees, corpses, grief, the sun, and che heavysidded In- dian eyes. Thousands of photographs consist of thie feld, and in these photographs [can of course, cake a kind of _, Several interest, one that is even sired sometimes, but in exiremich, regard to chem my emotion requires the rational inter- Pergeony nt cial IC Fe tiny of safle poll cay hat [el TAG, about these photographs derives from effec) Pe cL atmos fom «cern reining. I did nor now a French ‘word which might account fr this kindof human intrest, Wiss Sr tie el ese tl sao ch sencidy 260% met let a imme “sy” but ep ieee ) plication cos thing, taste for someone, « kind of genera, |" enthositic commitment, of course, but without special EH | sca. tis Tam interested in so many Grocsdares — phoeogeaphs, whether T receive them a8 political test 4 ‘mony ot enjoy chem as good historical scenes: for ic is dncrieun culturally (this connotation & present in sudivm) shat I arcpaté in the flgures, dhe faces, the gestures, the et. tings theations~ Ha, feck ont ‘The second clement will bretk (or punctate) the stabi This ie i's noe T who sek it out (as | invest {he field ofthe stadium wich my sovereign consciousness), i is this element which rss from the scene, shoots out of it ike an arrow, and pierces me, A Latin word exists to designate this wound, cis prick, this mark made by & pointed inserament: the word suite me all che Beier in thar i alo refers wo the sodion offpuncrution| and be- ‘aus the photographs [am speaking of ate in efect pune 26/ LBA ow Sos. T 9 cuted, sometimes even speckled with these sestine EC rin peel, bose mass, ese wounds ce mats, SA ois, Thi second clement which will dst she tno Usa eer al perfor puncam s thorn. peck, et tebe ao sa ofthe dice A photogs pancom i dae accident which pale? Guth bniker ne rpaiantione)s [A ? Pg i cosh TEN sy (lot in gael the photographs I TEED were contre inthe manner of + clas sonsta), could ocopy mp sol wit one theater Cormm EEA son temberdls dol Many phorgraps ae, sla, ner under my ue, Ba even among thos which have ome exizence in. my ej nest provoke only & general and, soto speak, polite interes: hey have 90 pn in them: they pleas of dispense me wihoat king me: they ae invested with no moe chan tier “The snd i that wry wie eld fu ae Sig a arb te, of Incniequetl cae don? like, The stadiom WSF WE order OF liking, not of. ‘ving; mobilizes aha desir, «demiwoltion; tis he fame sor of vague, sper, irespnsble ines ont takes inthe people, te entertinmens, the books, the Clos one fv "a phe” "To recognize the udm is ineinbly ro encoote the porgugher's inensons, 1 enter xo harmony wich [27them, (0 approve o disapprove of them, but always co undersied them, to argue chem within myself, fr cxlace «+f Seems eam i a kind of Sducation Cknowledge and civility, “politeness") which allows me ro discover the[ Operator, fo experience the in tentions which establish aad-animite his experience them tices, but according ro my will as a reyak? Spectator. 1 is eather as if Thad to read the Photog loci" phe’ jayehd in dhe Photograph, fratemizing wih them but nor quite believing 36 Wham. These mythe abviowsly “sim (chs i what myth is for) at econdiling the Photo- acaph with soci (is this necesary? —Ves, indeed: the Photograph is daviérous) by endowing ic with function, ae are, forthe Photographer, so many alix. These =. © {| fictions ae: to infoom, to represent, to surprize, to case Scat Leaainse more dee. Aa he Spectr, Ie {sScognize them widh move oF less pleasure: I invest them radium (orc is ever my delish ot my. pin). 1 Enhlo. te Kage, a nents an be nothing ele (i ib alvays something (ESS tae is terested) —contary to the text Seat arene cata Papeete ee eed ‘material of ethnological knowledge. When William Klein ne - Bape bg fenfiem “the phororepber teaches me Tow th Rese dee Ihab igi mothers nek, ld wont sar aod he bey setphorogeaphs "Mayday, 1959" ia Moscow, he teaches me how Russians dress (which after all I don’t know): 1 note a boy's big cloth cap, another's necktie, an old ‘woman's scaf around her head, a youths haircut, et. can enter ell further into such deus, observing that many of the men photographed by Nadar have long fin _gersils: sn ethnographical question: how long weee ails ‘worn in certain period? Photography can tll me this nach beter chan painted portraits Ie allows me to accede 10 n infrakoowledge; ic supplies me with a collection of pari object and can Sater certain fetishism of mine for this me” which likes knowledge, which aourishes a kind of amorous preference for i. Inthe sime wry, I Uke cettsin biographicsl feacaes whic, in a write’s lif, de Tighe me as much as certain photographs; I have called ‘these fertaces"biogrephemes"; Phorogtaphy has the same telaton o Histocy thatthe biograpbeme has to biogeapy. The Gist man who saw the frst photograph (Gf-ve excepe Niepee, who made it) muse have chought ie was a painting: same framing, same pecspective. Photography bs been, and is stil, tor mented by the ghost of Painting (Mapplethorpe repre sents an iris stalk the way an Oriental puicer might have one it); i has made Painting, sheough is copies and concesations into the absolute, patenal Reference, a5 if Bujopee acne “Atte dire wR See ONG aS I a tree bon fom he Ca ‘civin gar for he pies? cama obra oon Othe css of Pheoprapy; te ese oe, pcos ciate choral dacvey) At thie oie a my ves Jin noting sal dings» prope" eee fom 4 fuating “Pico” oly ‘eaguenin of hace Phtogeagh hn of sel. etoe Gases me) by Punting tha Poo sag eid bet by Ther, Nga Dee “teats for TS gn af Pheegrapy (een the , Teer rome eure the fume place); yateagin age, (a rave de ah Gs 8 Ge, SEhnialy,ba Dagueree, when he took over Niepc's invention, was running « panorama theate animated by light shows and movereats in the Place du Chiveus. The comers obieur imho has generated atone and the se HE EE graphy, ani he dior, which areal) 07 age; but if Phocography ams 0 me 9, cide ‘ose? tothe Teter, itis by way ofa singular ineemedi- 7, fry (and perheps Iam the oaly one who ses i): by Way of Death. We know the original relation ofthe dheater ai Re eK vie (BETH of the Dead: the fist acos separated chemselves 7% from the communiey by playing te role of the Deady 4% to male enesell up vas to diate oneelas a body, 5, %, Snutancaaly living aod ded Yhe whitened TERE de, the man with the paid face in they, © Gane heater he ice pane makeup ofthe fdian Kath aS Fale pms No mae» Now i eA tion which I in inde Photogeaphs however “lifelike” we) svat (ond irene ele an a y Amfotrece hand aioe (Qsteret™ our mythic denial of an apprehension of deh) ° sion ) 7 Phome il of primitive cheater, 2 kind ofl Zable] Tiguration oF the iioiionless and made-up face Thier we ead Timi (ib nal ean do since Ta anes sheer) ter ote per AE mehing or womens Cevough i ie oleae) td a po tue i hetfote peter when i perfomed nt Inornt wm te nbjet beg phoogrped. Tron ths SRLDCE,, est deve all phon wh pele (or eee, foe 20 whore alibi) is “shock”; for the photographic “shock” 3 red —(quite different from the punctuns) consists less in trau- i os ee ew whole gemut of "suprises" (as they are for me the Spector, but for the Photographer, thee are 9 syn fst surprise is that of che eae” ( acy of the sien of ame) pcg ne ni , as spent four yeas composing a photographic an thology of monsers (rman with two beads, woman with thre brea, child wih a i, tll amling), The ec nd suprise is one habia to Palosng, which hes fe quently reproduced a gesture apprehended st de point in js coone where the noxmal ee canoe aoe it (T have 32] isewere called this gesrre the furich Jo hisical YSes fainting): Booapete has jue toochel te plague vis) nee jaa is hand wits; inte same way, aking °°" tarmnoge of is inmanuancoes acon, the Phorogrph@2tey" Gmmobiics« rapid scene in its decisive instant: Apes: TE ips during the Publis re, photographs a woman iume- ©) ress Tigo oft window, The tid surprise itt of owes: MTor ty your, Harold. Egeron has photograph «gs "= the explson of a drop of mil, co the milinth of «GV second” (little need to admit that this kind of photogre “ pip neither uches nor even teres me: Tam too much bra phenemenologs to like snything bus appearances 10 soy own measure). A fourth surprise is the one which the hotoprape looks for fom the contortion of technige: Joperimpressions, ansmorphots, deliberate expition Of certain defects (blucng, deceptive perspectives trick framing); geet phosogrephers (Germaine Kall, Ker, ‘William Klein) have played on these spies without Convincing me, even if undezsand thie sobvrsive bes ine, ith pe of surprise: dhe rowel olay Sods XRessr phooraphs te window of « mansacd cof; be Find the pene, two clase buts Took out into the Set Ui tike Ker, but L dn’ ike whimsy, nites in mmsic tor in phovography) the scene can be acanged by che Photographer, but ia the word oF MaReT mela, = Elma” sone which the god reporter ns had the ge sls, he luck, co catch: a emi i mative corse on sie “Al shese surprises obey principle of defiance (which as ohy Thay we allen co me): the photographer, ike an 133acrobat, must defy the lews of probabiley oF even of pos sibiligy atthe limi, he muse defy chose of the interesting the photograph becomes “surprising” when we do not ‘know why ithas been caken; what motive and what ince. fe is there in photographing a backlighted nude in a doorway, the front ofan old cat in the gins, a feeighter at the dock, ewo benches in a feld, « woman's butocks at « farmhouse window, en egg on a naked! belly (photographs warded prizes ac n contest for amaceuts)? In an initial petiod, Photography, in order to surprise, photographs the notable; but soon, by a familiar cevesi, it decrees notable whatever ie photographs, The “anything what. vec" chen becomes the sophisticated seme of value By] Since every photopph is contingent (and Bop) | eco oesiteof men Poiana “no sip (sim ata peneraliy) excee by ing «ae ha word which Calvi eely Uses to designate what males a face into the product of a society and of ics history. AS in the portaie of William Cathy, photographed by Avedon: the esence of slavery is ete Inid bare: the mask isthe meaning, insofar as itis alsoluely pure (as i wat in the ancient theater). This is ‘why che pret poctait phowographers are great mytholo. iss: Nadar (the French bourgeoisie), Sander (the Gee- ‘mans of pteNasi Germany), Avedon (New York's ‘upper crust). 34/ rhe mask s momsing, snort is abslaaly poreYer the mask is the dick region of Photogeaphy Sie, ses, mitra pore mieening: fe wan mean. ng, bot ache wane cine it want this meaning to be rortounded by note (a sid in cpbemnetics) which well make ie fee acu, Hence che photograph whose reming (Fa ot saying itt meaning) i to preset quickly defected we consume i ete ‘aly noe polis. "The Photograph of the Made ie fe tea nash tg ph he Nach Shred Sander Bese Ts ces ofthe period” did no correspond t0 the Nas rcherype of the race), bu i is slso roo discreet (oe roo “distinguished” o constiate an authentic and effective socal critique, at least according co the exigencies of milisntsm: what commited sience ‘woald acknowledge the interest of Physiogoomy? Is not the very capacity to perceive the political ot moral mean- ing of a fae a class deviation? And even this is t00 much to say: Sender's Notary is sufased with selfimporance and stifles, his Usher with asteriveness and brutality ‘but na notey, ao ueher could ever have tend such signs. As disance, social obsecvation here assumes the neces. sary intermediary role in a delicate sestheic, which tex ders it futile: no critique except among those who ate alkeady capable of critica. This impase is something like Brech’s: he was hore to Photography because (he Said) of the weakness ofits tical power; bur his own heater has never been able to be politically eective on account of ts subelety and ite aesthetic quality. If we excep the realy of Advertising, where the metn- ing muse be cleer and distnce only by reason ofits mer. 36) id nt corrpond fo he asic “The Nasi censored Sander becare Bs Jas ofthe pariod of he Nes acs”Nt cantile nature, the semiology of Photography i therefore limited tm the admirable performances of several por tet, For the rst, with regard o the heterogeneity of "goed" photographs, all we can say is thar the objes peaks, it induces vs, vaguely, t dh. And farther: even this risks being perceived as dangerous. At the limit, no messing at ll is safer: the editors of Life rejected Kee: ‘vs photographs when he atived in the Unied States Jn 1937 becaute, hey sid, his images “spoke too much" they made us reflec, suggested 2 meaning —a diferent caning from the literal one. Ultimately, Photography it subversive not when ic frightens, repels, or even stig spares, but when ics pensive, when ic thinks, vee : ‘An old house, a shadowy porch ile, cram bing Acab decoration, a man siting agsnt the wall, deserted sree, a Meditecanean ree (Charles Cliford’s "Alhamba"): this old photograph (854) touches me: i is quite simply sbore that [should ~~ like eo live. This dsie affocts me ata depth and ecco ing to roots which I do not know: watmeh of che climate? ‘Mediverancan myth? Apollinism? Defecion? With rawal? Anonymiry? Nobilsp? Whatever the case (with regard to myelf, my motives, my fantasy), I want live there on inesie—and she sasrst photograph never satis fies that eprit de fnene/ For me, photographs of land seape (atban or county) miust be babiteblenot visable.) 38/ as. Crono: Tt Aus (GABSADN). 854This loging to inhi if observe i cen in msl i neither ner ( do ne deem of sme exeavagant st) nr emp (I donot intend to bu « house according to the views of realestate agen); iti fanasmati, deriving from a Kind of Scond sigh hich sms to beat ze forward © ¢ wopitn ime, off carey me back sonewheze in myself: double movement which Baude Ine cbr in Titan an ogage and La Vi om ‘ier. Looking a these lancapes of predilcion, cis asf were ceri of having been tere oro going hee NNow Freud says ofthe maternal boly tat “there is 20 rhe place of which one can say with so mach ceriney the one as already been there” Such then won be he cwence of the landscape (chosen by desi): bei, awakening in me the Moser (and never the disurbing Mother) Horodie a rr Coste a le femany Joagle “amg be ‘without doubling i, without making it vacillate (emphasis x oF cohesion) 20 dualicy, inde | \ of composition being de ise vale oF \ marley \ cS Tape ad aati of een) i “Tie | jece ays one andbook for amateor pherogap het NenGsC BE diaple,ftee of useless accesories; this i called i ace very often unary (the wnety phorogeanh is eoc necessarily tranquil) In thee images, fo pamciums: certain shock—the Hera can csumatie ut no distabance; the photograph can "shoU wound: These journalistic phowographs aze received (all er, dont recall wrone) cee lane ; a eet vn oe) ee ero aa them (8 Ta ieee he OE ay donot bre Sem or nay tgp rosea hm Pesoe oper: de eee sa am nt ying 8 re nt tae has een. dite, ed) So paca Bat § POAOEARTE Pt an alee: tae phoogap,wtoo nena aa auton Like a shop window ohh a aimed pee of joel, 1 comply cate yh penn ofl Hing #90 a inl ober eve manages fall cnet a A poo coset, Maple farapse L sted in the texture of the material " (ets al) ote ec Tenia ee poe change ny ad | ng bcm king rE 184 a photogs, make ny "yes with a higher value, This “detail” is che panmctwm. " Tei ao pole pois a of eon bewe the sadam aed she uncom (when happens ke sso of spies Gata oe a say: the nuns "haBpened to be there ye 5" passing in the back foun, when Wesingphoogapes th Nicaraguan ie om te wewpln of ely (which i pecaps he the Operator), whole causality explains the preseace of the “detail”: the Chu Sf Ge Mes te Chuch impala he Tati i feed by cae al or ahog e S way “composed” according to a cr ke sph rans doubles da, bat sai Woe nso ‘Semen tye nil Ea we pnt a na a 42 shall see): it sfices tha dhe image be large enough, that do not have to sey i (his woud be of no help tall), sha, given right thereon che page, should receive it ret here in my eyes. ‘what the phorograph has to say, for ie speskr (it good” phorograph): ic wees respecabilisy, family li conformism, Sunday best, an effort of social advancement In order ro assume the White Man's attributes (an effort touching by reason of is naiveté). The speceace iseress tne bot docs not prick me, What does, strange r0 sys i the bele worn fow by the ste (or daughter) —the “solac. ing Memuny’—whose scms are crossed behind her back like a schoolgitl, and above aller strapped gwmps (Mary Janes—why does this dated fashion touch me? I mean: © ‘ehot date does ic refer me2), This parculat puncnm browses grea sympathy in me, almost a kind of render fess. Yee the puncture shows no preference for mostly tr good ease: the punctum can be il-bred. Wiliam Klein has photographed children of Lice Iealy in New York 43: ‘The sapped pops poss Van ven Za, anes Boxee 1996 (19s4)s all very touching, amusing, but what T sub ornly se are one child's bad wath, Keres, in 1926, took young Tzar’s porta (with « monocle); bu whet Tovdce, by dat additional vision which is in a sense the flee race ofthe pec, is Tec’s hand rexing 08 aeidooe frame: & nrg haad whose nals ace anthing but ie may be, he punctu bas most ov ies porns, # power of expansion. “Tit Soe afer meanamie There x & phototale Eas (agzt) which shows a Blind gypsy violins being Ted by boy now whist Tse, by means ofthis “hiking ge’ wich makes me ad someting to he Photog, * the dr cond it entre gives mete cersny of being i Gencal Europe: I perceive dhe referent (here he pho ph realy warscens ili this atte sole proof of seve To annilae elf as med, tobe no longer & Sion but the thing ise), I recognite, with my whole ot he sraggling villages I pase through on my long gots ‘Theve is another (less Prousian) expansion of the panctum: when, paradoxical, while cemsiing 2 “de file she whole picture. Duane Michels as photo fpaphed Andy Warhol: a provcive poreaig nce ‘ashe hides his face bend br hans. have no desire {> commen itellecually 0 this game of hideandeek Cuhich belongs 10 the Seudium); ine for me, Wathol hides 9 a the pancium isnot the geste but the slight repel font eubeance of those spaulte nals a once hacdedged in Hungary and Rumania. thing; he offers his hands ro read quite opentys and fie arenWha eabboraly 0 erin en" Zo) nts son he Haren 2 Soe de tena fe Willen Weisner ume”. ae SSN he trating 9 me Bee eens menec! nen sb eataeeane anon Sr an wae ep ve re Ber eames fee Gen psy eran pe ngras (er Oa) TASTE CSS ay emt oer Fo See se cne pap om of itt, ese he STE Seale nov iis imensoa, and probably mos ot bes; oc Regis field ofthe phoeogeaphed thing like a supplemen ce ‘Gnee inevitable and delightful; it does not necessarily at ae SS ‘est to the photographer's art; it says only that che photog: rapher was chere, of else, sll more simply, chet be could, He. ‘not not photograph the partial object at the sume ime as the tcl object (haw could Kereész have “separated” the die 202d from the violinist waking on i). The Pho.1 eaopuie, wth my ele body, the shaping lege I ptied Hone ‘1 my lorpage tae Hangar ad Reman. Bad) figuration, By the mark of sometbing, the at) mc a and active, A erick of vocabulary: we say “to develop a rs dengue! hotogeeph”; but what the chemical action develops tindevelopable, an etence (of 2 wound), what cannot be © transformed but only repeated under the instances of in Sisence (of she insistent gaze). This brings the Photo ‘raph (cettain photographs) close co the Hak, For the ‘oration of a haiku, too, is undevelopable: everything is iiven, without provoking the deste for or even the pe iilicy of «rhetorical expansion. In both cases we might (ve most) speak of an intense iomobily: linked to & eat (to « desonaor), an explosion makes a litle star on the pane of the text or of the photograph: neither the ‘Hails nor the Photograph makes us “dream.” Te Ombredane’s expesiment, che blacks sec on his1 die at beowtdge, entre, by the boy's huge Danton clr, the git fer bondage ewes Hi: itor Gans A ISTETIN NW ny 904 screen only the chicken crossing one coener of the village ‘square, 1 0, inthe phiorograph of ewo ceraned chilien satan instution in New Jersey (eaken in 1924 by Lewis HE Hine), hardly see the monstrous heads and pathetic profiles (wich belong to the stadium); wha T pe, ike Ombiedane’s blacks, is the offcenter decal, thy, fee boy's huge Danton collar, the gtl'cfinger bandage Dem a sents y ld -or a mind Dismise ltknowledge, atl than my own. ed weed cpu of care actu isnot (L zust Lam fot using ‘words abuavele). Nedar, in his time (= photographed Ssvorgoan de Brazza between evo young blacks dresed s French sailors; one of the wo boys, daly, has rested his hand oa Beaza’s high; this incon uous gettre is bound to arrest my gaze, fo constitute & puncture. And yet iti not one, fr I immediacely code the poste, whether I want 19 oF no, as “aberrant” (For me, the pumctur is the othe boy's crossed arms). What Tan ‘name cannot realy prick me, The incapacity to name is & jpood symptom of disurbsnce. Mapplethorpe has photo- sraphed Robere Wilton end Philip Glass. Wilson Bold sme, though [cannot say why, ie, say were: i i he ees, the skin, she postion of the hands, the tack shoes? The ‘fice ix certain but waloctable, i does aoe find is sign ies 5H"The poco, forme, name; cis shatp and yet Inds in « vague zone of myself ici scare yee muffle, it ees out in silence. Ox conte diction: a lating fash ‘Nothing supesing, chen, if sometimes, dspie its lar ing the panctum should be revealed only afer che fact, wren the photograph i& ao longer io front of me and T Think back on it. I may know better « phorograph I te member chan « photograph Tam looking at, 38 if direct vision oriented ts language wrongly, engaging it in # fone of description which il elways mist is point of tifect, the parctum. Reading Van det Zoe's photogeaph, 1 though Tad dscemed what moved me: the strapped pumps ofthe black woman in hec Sunday best; bot this horogaph has worked within me, and ler on Trealied hat the real pumciers was che necklace she was wearing foc (n0 doubt) it was ths same necklace (1 slender eb thon of besided gold) which I had seen worn by someone in my owa family, and which, once she did remained Shut up in & family box of old jewelry (eis ser of my facher never matted, lived ich her mother 35 an old maid, and I bad always been saddened whenever T thought of bee dreary life) had just realized that bow. fever immediate and incisive it was, the panctum cond ccommodate ¢ certain Itency (but never aBy su Sirimaely— graph well, ts beer look away or close your eyes. "TRE fecessty condition for an image i sighs," Janouch wold afi; and Kafka smiled and replied: "We phorograph things in order to ceive them ove of our minds, My stories te a way of shutting sy eyes” The phorograph must be iin order to see a photo- Oe"Bob Wileom bls me, bat comet 1 why silent (there are blustering photographs, and I don’: lke them); thie is noe a question of discretion, but of music [Absolute subjectivity is achieved only in a sxe, an effort, of silence (shutting your eyes isto make the image speak in silence). The photograph touches me if T withdraw ie from its usual blabblahs "Techaique;" “Realiy;” "Re- portage;” “Ax;” etc: £0 say nothing, to shot my eyes; to allow the detail to ste ofits own aezord into affective Lest thing about the puncium: whether or not ic is tiggcce, i i an addicon: itis what T sed to the photograph and wha i nonetbeets lveady there, To Lewis Hine's reared children, I add nothing with segaed tothe degenerescence of the profile the code exprenict this before I do, kes my place, des fot allow me fo speak; whee I add—and what, of coure, is already in the image—is the collas, the bandage. Do I ‘aro the images in movies? I dons think 30; I don'e have time: infront ofthe secen, I arn nor fre to shut my eyes; otherwise, pening them agsin, I woald not discover the same image; Iam constrained to a continuous voracty; & hos of other qualities, but not pensivenerr; whence the ince, for me, of the photogram. Yer the cinema hat « power which ee fst glance the Photograph does not haves the screen (as Bazin has re rmatked) i nota frame but « hideout; the man oF woman. Isiv emer tom coins tng abl el” con sree om pata ven, Now, cntoing mi toe ear coling thse which have Bl so bln es eveybing wah ngs Ci ee in abalely once sane se tn hen we dein the Phroeph as « otal imag hid 55 in ly ate ait sens do not move:it-meats that set 40 not emerge a aout and fanned down TE Barierflies. Yet once there is 2 purctwm, ‘a blind Held” ‘Gea (is divined): on account of her necklace, the re seu her Sona) bt sa fF me 4 whole wor ns pny Rober Wilton, coved with ve spun, ie smeone Iwano et Hee 2 cra porogrepiedin 1863 by George W. aeeaeeroe toned be it stably ping te Won hin i Maria nr, he di) a eens ecing my ye 4 ltd rom blls ae hte pcm fo ven do nt ae pn he scl ows of is cman may Pe (Gemant? equetry?), 1 ean see bis fonction ceasly: 2 upervte she hore’ behavior: what if che hoese suddenly began to rear? What would happen co che queen's skirt dey to ber majesty? The ponctum fancastically “btings ut” the Wcsian nacue (what ese can one cal 2) of Sy the phoeogeaph, it endows this phorograph with a blind S21 fet Tne poner (duis) of i inde er ner a pag Tae Seeeeeeeeeeeeeees ve Oe sgt Poropphy only se (Wisgain Weal} (6, waa Que Vion. 1863ee magenta righ degre of opennet, the ight desc of sbandonmen | MapoLereoere: YOU MAN wnt At BxTBNOND sents the semual organs, making them into a motionless object (a fetish), atezed like an idol that does noc leave its niche; for me, there it no panctum in the pornographic Jmage; st most it amuses me (and even then, boredom follows quickly). The erotic photograph, on the contrary (and this tits very condition), does nor make the sexual ‘organs into a cental objet it may ery well not show therm at ali takes the spectator ous es fame, and it ie there that I animate this photograph and hat it ani- as if the image launched ts 10 see: noe only roward "the rest” of che nakedness, noe ‘only tomsed che fantasy ofa pratt, bar toward the abso- Jute excellence of a being, body and soul together. This boy with his stm outstretched, his radian smile, dough hs besury isin no way casial or academic, and though he it half ou of the photograph, shifted ro che extreme left fof the frame, incarmates a kind of blisful erorcism; the photogreph leeds me to distinguish the “heavy” desire of ‘pornography from the “light” (good) desire of eroticism eral, perhaps this 6 « question of “luck”: the phorog- rapher bas caughe the boy's hand (the boy is Mapple- thoupe himelf, I believe) at just the right degree of ‘openness, the sight density of abandonment: 2 few milli- meters mote or less andthe divined body would no longer Ihave been offered with benevolence (the pornographic body shows isl ic does not give itself, there is no gen- ‘rosity init): the phowogeapher hes found the right mo- mnt, theksiros of desc.ee hares elyhegre ar Tajaelf w find the evidence of Photography, that thing Part TooBe iotopraphs. | had no hope of "nding" het, hem up a #toualiy). No, what I wanted—as Valésy ‘was not engulfing myself in them. Twas sorting chem, bar (63‘none seemedto me really “ight”: neither as a photo- graphic performance aoe as a living resurrection of the heloved face, 1 were ever t0 show them ro friends I code actin Jns would speak Aomeartesis Mieaue ww tminly. ostomy xe Aas, ag ees oa opined. ‘With regard co many of these photograph, ie Se Hite wich sped ef er 1 born? I could read my nos “Tmother had woun before I can remember her. There is & kind of stopefaction in seeing a familiar being dresed iferenily, Viere,scound 2923, is my mother dressed up at with a feather, gloves dliate linea at wriss and chat, her "chic" belied by the sweetness and simplicity of ber expression. This is the only time I have seen her like this, caughe in « Hisony (of tastes, fashions, fabrics) my acteation is distracted from her by accessories which Ihave perished; for clothing is perishable, it makes a sc cond grave for the loved being. In order ‘0 “find” my mother, fogitively alas, and without ever being able t0 hold on to this resurrection for long, 1 muse much late, Aliscover in several photographs the objects Yhe Kept of her dtessing rable, en ivary powdeF box (P loved the sound of is lid), a cuverystal flagn, or ese a low chair, ‘which is now nete my own bed, or again, the rain penels she arranged above the divan, the large bags she loved al (whose comfortable shapes belied the bourgeois the "haadlag") "Tha the life of someone whose existence has somewhat preceded owt own encloses in its pariclarcy the vecy tension of History, is division, History is hystei constituted only if we consder i, only if we'leok at ie— tnd inorder to loo att, we must be excluded from i AS a living soul, Iam the very contaty of History, Lam belies it, destroys it for the sake of my own history (im ponsble for me to believe in "witneses"; impossible, at Teast, tobe one; Michelet was abe ro write virally noch ing about his own time). Thar is what the time when my mother was alive before me is—Hisory (moreover, iis the period which interes me most, historically). No anamnesis could ever make me glimpse this time starting from myelf (tht 8 che definition of anamaesis)— ‘whereas, contemplating & photograph in which she is bug ging me, a cild,agsinst her, can waken in msl rumpled softest of her crépe de Chine and the perfume of hertice powder. ‘And here the essential question firse appeared a According to these photographs, sometimes ever recognized her except ia fagiments, which is t0 165(Bosty tro tse fate, i say that T mised hee Being, and that therefore 1 missed har altogether. It was not she, and yt ie was ao one ele. T ‘would have recognized her among thousands of other women, yet I did noe "ind” hee. I recognized er difer- aly, not exeensilly. Pore thereby complied sialy coe, and serfoe oly fae. To sy, confronted ‘photograph, “Thats almort the way she ves!” was more distressing than t sy, confronted. with i another, "That's noe the way she was at all.” The almost love's dreadful regime, but also the dean's diseppointing statur—hich is why I hate dreams. For I often dream about her (I dream only about her), but i s never quite ray soother: sometimes, ia dhe dream, there is something risplaced, something excesive: for example, something playful or casual—which she never was; or sguin I brow itis she, bu I do not see er feaares (but do we se, i reams, do we hnow?): T deeam about her, I do not dream her. And confronted with the photograph, as in the ream, it isthe stan efor, the sure Sisyp reasend, staining toward the essence, 0 climb back down without having sca it, and to begin all over again, ‘Yee in these photographs of my modher there was al- swaps place set apart, reserved and preserved: the bright ness of her eye, For the momear it was a guite physical Iumiaotey, the photographic uace of a color, the blue- green of her pupils, But thie Highe was already a kind of mediation which led me toward an essnvial dentin {the Seats ofthe beloved face. And then, however imperfect, 3 labor: © exes - 66 cach ofthese phovographs masifested che very feeling she must have experienced each time she “let” here be pho= rogcaphed: my mother “lent” herself co the photograph, fearing that refoeal would evra c “attiode”; she ti umphed over this ordeal of placing herelf in fone ofthe leas (an inevitable action) with dseavion (but without a touch of the tense theaticalism of humility or sulkiness); for she was always able to replace « moral value with & higher one—a civil value, She did not struggle sich bee image at Ido with mine: she did nor syppose herself “There I yas, alone inthe apartment where she Imad died, Hooking at these pictues of my mother, one by one, un ‘moving back in time with he, looking forthe trash ofthe face Ih loved, And I found it. ‘The phorogeaph was very old. The corners were blunted from having been pasced in an album, the sepia prin had faded, and che picture just managed to show ro children sanding together ac the end of Title wooden bridge in a glasedin conservatory, what was called a ‘Winter Garden in those days. My mother was five at che time (1858), her brother seven. He was lening against the bridge railing, along which he had extended one arm; the, shorter than he, was sanding a lie back, facing the camera; you coald tell thatthe photographer had stid, “Seep forward a litle 40 we can see you"; she was holding ‘he lamp, graduallyWa do you sink i the wor great paar?” Nar” Naga Ts Axis Mori (8 Wis) ‘one finger in the her hand, as childven often do, in an siwkward gesture. The brother and siser, usted, as T knew, by the discord of their paren, who were soon 10 Aivouce, had pote side hy sd, alone, under the palms of the Winter Garden (ie was the house where my mother was born, in Chennevidessur-Marne) I sued the litle giel and at last rediscovered my other, The distinctness of her face, the naive atiude of her hands, dhe place she had docilely taken without ether showing of hiding hertelf, and Snally hee expression, which distinguished her, like Good from vil, from the brstecical lle gil from the simpering doll who plays at being 2 grownup—all this constituted che figure of x sov exeiga smnoconce (if you will rake this word according ro its etymology, which is: “I do 0 berm”), all this had tianaformed the photographic pose into that untenable paradox which she had nonetheless maintained all her life: the astertion of gentleness. In this lide gies image [saw the kindness which had formed her being immedi. axely snd forever, without her having inherited ie fom snyone; how could cis kindness have proceded from the imperfect patents who had loved her so badly—in short from a family? Hee kindness was specially out-of play, ie belonged ro no system, ora last i was located atthe limits of « morelity (evangelical, for instance); 1 could ‘oe define ie beter than by this fearure (among others) ‘ha during the whole of out life together, she never made 1 single “observation.” This exteme and paricear cle cumstance, so abstract in relation to sn image, wis none theless pesent in the face reveled in the photograph T 169nad just discovered. "Not just image, jas an image; orld seys, Bat my goof wanted a just image, an image ‘which would be both justice and accracy-—justtse: just an image, but a jus image, Suc, for me, was che Winter Garden Photograph. For once, photography gave me a sentiment ascertain as remembrance, jax a8 Proust experienced it one day ‘when, leaning over to take off his boos, chere suddenly ‘caine 10 im his grandmother's tae face, “whowe living ‘realy I was experiencing forthe fs time, in a involun- cacy end complete memory.” The unknown photographer of Chennevidressur-Marne bad been che mediagor_of Less rach a8 Nadse making of his mother (or of his ‘wife—n0 one knows fr ertsin) one ofthe lovelies pho- tographs in the world; he had pendued a supererogsrory horograph which contained more shan what be tech: nical being of phorogeaphy can reasonably of. Or again (for Tam eying wo expres this ruth) this Winver Garden Photograph was for me like the last music Schuman ‘wrote before collapsing, that Sst Geran der Fribe wich sccord with both my mother's being and my grief at her death [could not express this accord excep by an ininice series of adjectives, which 1 omit, convinced however that tbs phorogeaph colleced all the posible predicates from ‘which my mother's being was constaed and whose sup presion or partial alteration, conversely, had sent me back to chee phocogeaphs of her which had lefe me 50 unsitisied, These same photographs, which phenomeno!- ogy woald call "ordinary" objec, were merely analog yo} caren raat ne saree ian a re ees re er res leery ernie, soe SAS an deed = St uA Gian a fu Ys yee yehaee, 1 unites fretng(Liwe by Diced) ‘ Nor coud Tomi thi frm my refcion: that ' Thad dicoered this phoograph by moving f back through Time. The Grecks entered into Death backward: what they had before them was thie pas In che same’ way worked back eheough «fife, aot try own, bo he life of sreone I lve Staring fom het Inet image, taken the summer before her deth (0 tied, 40 noble siting in font of the door of our howe, su rounded by my friends), 1 arrived, caving thier quarters ofa cen, at the image of a chil: T sare intensely at the Sovereign Good of cidhood, of the mother, ofthe motheraechild, OF course I was then lo ing her twice ove, in er final fague and inher fist F photograph, forme del bur twat alo a this moment 4 that everhing tuned around and T discovered her at into berelf «(eter charges fer, 1 compere Mallarmé ves) This movement of the Phoograph (ofthe ode of pho- togeaphs) Ihave exptinced i ely. At the end of her If, shorty before te momen when Iooked though het Pictres and discovered the Wiser Garden Photograph, say mosher was weak, very weak. [lived inher weakness (yt(it wae imposible for me to participate in e world of sccength, to go out in dhe evenings; all social ife appalled sme), Dusing her illness, I nursed her, held the bow! of et she liked because it was easie 1 dsak from than from 2 cap; the had become my file gle, uniting for me with that estendal child she was in her fest phorograph. In Brecht, bp a eversl I sed 0 admire a good ded, iis son who (politically) educates the mother; yee I sever located my mothes, never converted her 1 anything at All; in sense I never “spoke” to her, never “dlscoursed in her presence, fo her; we supposed, without saying any thing of the kind eo each other, that che frivolous insigni cance of language, the sspension of images mast be the very space of love, is music. Ukimately 1 experienced her, stoag as she hed been, my iane lw, es my feminine child, Which was my way of sesolving Death. If, as 50 many philaophers have sui, Death i the harsh victory of the ace, if the particular dies for the satiation of the saniverel, F AREY Raving Base’ reprSIwGRA at oe than imsel, the individual dies, having thereby denied and transcended himself, T who lad not procreated, Thad in het very illness, engendered my mother. Once she was dead I no longer had any reason co attne myself co the progres of the superior Life Force (che race, the sp cies My pactculargy could never agen universal it. self (unless, wcopically, by writing, whose proect ence forth would become the unigue goal of my life) From raw on I could do no more than await my weit/ unit: lectical deat ‘That is what I rea in the Wit Garden Photogrsph 72 Something ke een ofthe Photos owed inh para pcre. fers OA) ted wo "dece”al Picoaghy Gis "ow Toe") fom the only phowograph which aed exed see nad ake somehow ar 9 guide for 7 ast inveripaion, All the worl’ phogrephs foamed & eee T kara tm othe comer of ie Tabi 1 TecLd fod nobing or ib sole plcur, falling Nrowscie's pope fA nthe man ere seks thet be only bis Arad” Te Wier Gade Pho ee aa hnlne mit Teno it would elp me ree cans hing (moose or eens), bu bese ‘Could elle wha contd ha ered which drew Downed Phorprphy. 1 had wero’ that bene tenn mat imeerope the eee of Porogrphy ‘ee wigwpolat oF plaisre, Bat i eaton © wit Se fomantially cal lve nT Ut. {cannot reproduce the Winter Garden Photograph. It ‘nl fore. For yous it weed be noting bot 22 seins pure one ofthe dusnd manfetins of ventas aonoe ney wy cee te ible SBjes owen, cme ceblnh an objec, the positive sense of the cerm; at most it would interest. veut min: peri, cts segs but i i or yousowond) 173Bisbee nea ear From the besianing, I had determined oa 4 principle for mypel never to redace mye asset, confronting cexain phorograph, j the disincarated, dae socas which since is com cerned with. This piniple obliged me ro “forget” ewo ‘nsitions: the amily che Motes. ‘An unknown perion has writen mei “leat you are prepacing a album offaily photographs” (rumors ex teavagant progres). No: either album ao family, For « long time, the Family, for me, wat my mother anda my side, my brother beyond that, noting (except the mem cy of grandparents); a “cou,” that unit 0 necesary 10 the consaton of the family group, Besides, how op posed Tam co da scenic way of esting the family a ‘tic were uniquely a fabric of eonstrins and cite: either xe Tyas a group of immediate allegiances or ele we make into a kt of confics snd repcesons, Asif oar expens rem families “Wone ‘And ao more than I would seduce my family to the Family, would I reduce my mother to the Mother. Read ing certain general studies, Y saw that they might apply quite convincingly to my situation: commenting on Freod (Atoser end Monorboiom), J. J- Gow explains that Jude ‘sm ejected the image in exder to prorect itself from the bk of worshipping the Mother; and that Christianity, by q ral making possible the representation of the maternal fem nine, ranscended the rigor ofthe Law forthe sake ofthe ImageRepersire. Although geowiag up in a religion withoutimages where the Mother i not worshipped (Provestantism) but doubeless formed coleurally by Cath lic act, when I confronted the Wineer Garden Photo igaph I gave myself up tothe Image, tothe Image-Reper toire, Thus I could understand my generality; bar baving frond i, iavneiby I escaped from ic Ia the Mother, ere was a radiant, ireducble core: my mother. Te is always maintained that 1 should sofer more bectuse 1 have spent my whole life with her; but my suflering po ceeds from who she war, and ic beensse she was who she was that f lived with her. To the Mothera-Good, she had added that right sey, like the Prousian Narrator at his grand mother’s deach: “I did noe insist only upoa suffering, bat ‘grace of being an individual soul. 1 ‘upon respecting the originality of my suflering"; for this otiginaity was che rection of what was absolutely ie reducible in her and thereby lost forever) Iti sid that smouening by its gradual aor, slowly ree ay TO ‘he tinoron of Tes (Kr do weep), that & a For the ig sees Fe ‘wbat Pave Hpac | Gould line wou the Marker (a8 we ‘OF leter); but wha life remained would be ely wngaalifable (without quality). inswe Ponypaphys teh Hea seaiy Ae { thing — or ype e gotemel 1 whe ‘Whaa I had noted et che beginning, in a free and easy manner, und 1 eer cure ite tro er whieh hd mini Coe and mete nie oly ete Ds [phon ( Fist ofall I had to conceive, and therefore if possible sxe rope (een i Crh elves pore tne fe ee tthe seme of coaettin, Tall. pogrpic crea” epoay el hing age [es tides srt at sh i la tli tle it Ws wl te phtopaph, Peang cn kgnwaliy ii aving ak Dit combi oe ihre she of coune, bu hte eens an be and “chimeras.” Contrary to tt Sep “inc Cg i inn omy deny tha she sbing has been there, There is 8 singe: ly ne fad se is comet ony fox Pho we ms con tide iby radia he very ee, he ame of Phoxopraphy. What 1 ntetonalie fn « photograph (we rar nok yt speakng of in) i citer Art noe Commu arson ie Reference, which i the founding order of Phoworapby. the oxy of Phorgraphy’s nome wl serfs Be fares ox guns he Tole Ta Tain paRREy eens bose iluminaie cerain me rar) this would dott be sid inert: what 1s sar hee, inthis place which extends beeen infty vee ube sbject(opertor or spectator; eas een Bee, je immciclysepaaed chs een abla i verably present, end yee alzedy defecred, Tei ll ths ‘hic he ver intro meas. "a ee daily food of phowographs in he chowsand ov of inves they et provoke ay be that che see "Thet-arbeen” i nt presi (a noeme cance Jeeepresed) bur experienced with indfrence,o «fe ve eomich gocs without saying. 1 i eis inierence vehi de Winter Garden Phocozeaph ad jst soased me ree Reconting 10 u paridovcal ordet—since otully sree ming before ceclting them “eue"-—under the Nhe ofa new experince, cat of intensity, I had inde ech ofthe age the ely of is origins Uh ent teak gute and reality in a waigoe emodon, in whieh T enetorth paced the atore—the geniss—of Phos vi ice pointed ors sopesing eat reed PY ro me, cold compel me to believe is referent bad ally existed 7Phrep il rate — te py { Gg CF fray of Pile 1 might pu this dierenty wha founds che sate of Photography isthe pose ail duration of this foie is OF Tile cons quence; even inthe inrerval of # millionth of « second (dagen top of milk) there bas sill been pose, for the pose i ot, ete, the atid of che target or even technique ofthe Operator, but che erm ofa “intention of reading: looking at « phomgraph I inevitably include in my sting the thought of th insane however bie in which real ding happened tobe motionless ia front resent phorogeaph'simmobily ! pon the past shot and ie eis ast which consis i the pose, This explsine why che Photographs noeme de- | terortes when this Phomgragh is animated and | ‘Snems: in the Photogaph, something as posed in front } ofthe eye. I projet of the sny ole and bee remsined cere Frere (ha it sng feeling); bo in cinema, something bt psd in roe ose is swe a a denied i by the contnocs series of imager! it is x diferent phecomenology, and therfore diferent at which be iter hough eed om be on. i Te Photography, te presence ofthe ting (ot # certain se monet) i never metaphoric, and inthe cae of Enimaed beings hei ie well, excep in the cae of howogeaping copes; and even 6: ifthe phoogaph then becomes hob, Beau cers, 2010 et, that che corpse is live, ab corpo: ics the living image 1 dead ching Fo the photograph’ immobility i somehow eau ofa perverse confusion between v0 concep: the Real and che Live: by attesting that che objeeras been real, the phocograpi surreptitiously induces belie tha i patie, beense of that delusion which makes ws tebe to Realty an absolutely superior, somehow ereral value, tu by shifting this reality 10 dhe past (ihishasbeen"), the photograph suggests thac itis already dead Hence ie would be beter say chat Photography's inimitable feature (its noone) is that someone has seen the re ferene (even ifit isa matter of objects) dn lesb and blood, ot again i perton. Photogzaphy, moreover, began, hist Cally, as an ae ofthe Person: of identi, of evil stata of Sina we mighe callin all senses ofthe term, che body's ormality. Here again, ftom a phenomenological viewpoint the cinerna begins to dilr from dhe Photograph; for the (Gesional) cineme combines «wo poses: the actor's "this thas been” and the rol’, 20(dat (someting 1 would not experience before « painting) dan never see or se agin fn fm certain actors whom know to be dead without « kind of melancholy: the melancholy of Phorography ite {UH ekpetience this same emotion listening to the recorded voids of desd singe). 1 think again ofthe porta of William Casby, "born & slave" photographed by Avedon, The noeme here i i tenses forthe man [se Bete bas been a slave: he certs that lavery has existed, not so far from ws; and he cet fies this pot by historical testimony but by & new, some how expecienil order of proof, although itis the past aepete” (eerie | Sne oY Tila meclsetine 8 which i in question—a proof no longer merely induced: ‘the proof.according-o-St.‘Thomas seeking +0 touch-the re vrrected Christ I remember Keeping for a long time « photograph T had cat our of a magasine—lost subee- gently, like everything too carefully pit away—which showed 2 slave market: the slavemastr, in «hit, stand ing; the slaves, in loinclohs, siting. L repeat «| photo graph, not a drawing or engraving; for my hortot and ty fascination 25 a child came from thie: chat there was @ cortansy that such 2 ching had exited: not 2 question of ceactitade, but of rely: the historian was no longer the f Ie soften sid that i wat ehe painters who in vented Photography (by bequeathing it thie Cera ming, te Alben penpentte nd che ‘optic ofthe camera obscura). 1529: no, ic was the chem fats. For the moome "Thathas been” was possible only on the day when a scientific circumstance (the discovery thie silver halogens were sesiive to ight) made ic posible to recover and print directly the luminous rays emitted by & variously lighted objece The photograph is literally an sanacion of the referent. From a real body, which was radiations which ultimaaaly touch me, who am here; the ducaton ofthe transmission is insignificant; the photograph of the missing being, as Sone say, will there, pro 80) say ge lighe, Gough lnpalpale WE chnal ined skin {share with anyone who ha been pow srapbed Trscms the in Latin “phoopap- would-be id sag lus opere expres which 0s: image 2 vole, “omeed? moaned” “exprened” (ike the Toee of mon) by he acon of tig: And i hore Fay eleged w» worl with some real seni sith hol eva vertices of teal te ‘Toved body is immortalized by the mediation of a precious teenie (monumen ad ary) 0 whch we it Tid te noon eat dhs me, eal the mets of Al cheng, ale Pup tis bene Fam delighted (or epee) <0 ow th the hing ofthe pass by Hinman ai thon (im laminas), has ely woched che sue which in its turn my gave will ouch, chat Iam noe very food of Coloc. An anonymous daguerreotype of 1843 shows a men and a woman in a medallion subsequently ‘nted bythe miniatures on the staff ofthe photographic seadio: [always fel (unimportane what actually occu) hat in che same way, color is coating applied later om t0 ‘the original rath of the black-and-white photograph. For me, coloe isan actifce, « coamedc (like the kind us to plat corpses). What maters co me is not the phow- ipeaph's “ile” (a purely ideological notion) but che et tainty that the photographed body touches me with its ‘own cays and aot witha superadded light [8x“Uience the Winter Gatden Photograph, however pele, is foe me the weasury of rays which emanated from my other as child, from her has, her skin, her des, hee gaze, onthe da.) only eniemmona, , Loy eke Unanny pe VU on Seen Digan Jb dost not call up the past (aoehing Proustan ia a photograph). The floc it produces upon me it n0€ 10 testore ‘what has been abolished (by time, by distance) but 10 | sweet that what T see has indeed existed. Now, this i a strictly sandalous effect. Always the Photograph aston leer me, with an astonishment which endures and renews ielf,inexhaustiby. Peshaps this astonishment this per impregnated Se. Veronica's napkin: hac ic was not made by the hand of man, zbeiropoetos? “ere are some Polish soldiers testing in a field (Ker ther, 1935); nothing extraordinary, except this, which 90 realist panting woeld give me, that shay wore shore; what 1 see isnot & memory, en imagination, a reconstitution, & piece of Maya, such afar avishes upon us, but eaiey in pas state: at once the past and the zeal. What che Pho- togrph feeds my mind on (chouglh my mind is never st sted by ie), by 4 brief action whose shock cannot dife 82/ “tei pub tha Ernst 2a ie rode bat rb? Bo?—s EGR DED lie into reverie (this pechaps the definition of stor), is the simple mystery of \goncomitance, An anonymous phow- raph represents a wedding (in England): cwenty-five EFerEACA persons ofall ages, two litle gil, a baby: I read he date Leng and I compute: 1910, so they must all be dead, except HMA. apt eg bby (ld a a ld er ‘leman now). When I see che beach at Barrie in 2931 (Larsigue) or the Poot des Artin x932 (Keres), I say to myself: "Maybe I was there"; maybe that’s me among. ‘he bathers othe pedestrians, one of those summer after- rooas when J took the tram from Bayonne t0 go for & ‘swim on che Grande Plage, or one of those Sunday mora: ings when, coming from our apartment in the Rue Jacques Callor, I crossed the bridge t0 go to the Temple ‘e [Orateire (Christan phase of my adolescence). The ate belongs 10 the photograph: noe because it denores a style (this does not concern me), but because it makes me ov itoe aioe! life my hee, allows me to compute life, death, che inexo. able extinction of the generations: it is possible that Ernest, nam the ‘ acholboy photogpbed in 1931 by Ker, is tll Song mene oay (bt whee? how? What» noel) ae SET Ceefrence of evry phorograph|and this what geese a {Hy BRIERE i aesig ITS al horses. | quan! why i ie dat Fam alive Gore aid"Rew? Of S crane, more Gan other as, Pho culo, mite presence © the worki—{eaprecae Pha yaphptcene is ae only of «poli Slee US patie by the Tne in coniepority GeAw"Y, ici also of ical order. Fabere dried (but did he relly deride?) Bouvard and Péoche iaveigating the sy, the 84 sas ing, eh Kind of queso de which derive from 8 Photography eutes for me: quesions whi “squpi” of simple metaphysics (Ft isthe answers which are complicared): probably the tue metaphysics, aeriurehinammyapet fe, npr carotene, [SS ane anaion& decive fa foo a orga ai eomcnres des not nue ae er eee conbof memory (DOW an PROBED aan nal tine), be fo vey posse aa rhe pth of een e Poprasht i iy wha repens One ay Eesvel ee opaghers pcre of myself which bud ot bene een forall my eos 1 isp the rene does in whe crcosace 1 bal ae sete wn ve ipsa avail And ye, Besse # at «2 ye teeny that a ene Coven eae bee). Tis dorian erween ceri) $0 livion gave me a kind of vertigo, ‘something of a “detec ans Up ot Tr O87 jst what Ino longer knew about myself tion o learn at ‘No witing can give me cis certainty. 1 is che misfOr sre) of sane (bat alo perhaps the vlupons please) of fanguage not to be able eo authenscateiself These 185“The fers photograph Pro negagh~ oxttep bites Lange gee veemn = ficken of language is peape this impotence, Sel Tanga iy by nara, toa the atempi to norms 3 render language unfctonl seques Datatut of measurements: we convol= Tog ‘hai, sworn out, bu the Phosograph i inilfecent to all ie ie cht Jatetmedianies dose Sot invent “a ETH te contrary, wide pices: che phowograph is [abo aly when it fakes Te isa prophecy Ta revere THRE Casandras Bat ejet fixed on the past, Photography ever lies: of rather, it cin Le a8 to the meaning of the ates ie permis ae n thing, being by natute fondontons, never a6 «0 its exs- tence, Impotent with regard to general eas (to fiction), irs force is nonetheless ou to everything the homan ‘mind can or can have conceived co assure us of tealisy— ‘hue alo this reality is never angthing bur 2 contingency (50 much, no more”). showoraph it «cece of presence, This fable fo instance) must have seemed to him co resemble cexacily cettain paintings (still the camere obscura), he linew, however, that he was noseso-nose with « mutant (a ‘Martian can sesemble « man); his consciousness posited the objece encountered ectoplaim of "whacad bee image nor celity, Genew Being,ally: a relity one can no longer touch. PetheprWe have an invincible resistance ro believing in past in Hiseoty, except in the form of myth. The Pho [87 i lading 3 ny "Soret~ Bau Aot — inna sxepticn- FacpmP. atc 'ceoso Topi or the fie ee, pts an ead thi esinance enefordh che pts a cermin as the presen, what we see on paper bes cermin as whit we eich, [ei the ftene ofthe Phorogaph-—tod not at hat beens of nema-—which vides the history ofthe world is pressely Beease dhe Photograph i an antro- pologically new objet that it mst escape seems t0 me, Chua dicsios of the ge. eich fashion, sowadas among Phecogaphy’s commentator (wciologiss and semiologists), 10 ste upon s semantic relativey: 20 “realy” (great scorn forthe “reais” who do not see thac the photograph is always coded), nodhiog bue ert fice: Their, aoe Physi; the Phoxopraph, they siy, is not tan amatogon ofthe world; what it represens is fabricated, because che photographic optic is subject to All | ~yerpective Cenirely hike) and because the inscrip | tion onthe picture makes a tes-imensionl objec into 2 ewodimensional egy This argumene i ute: nohing ‘an prevene the Photograph from being analogical; ue at the sume tine, Photography's name has nothing © do with analogy (feature fshares wih all Kinds of repre seatstion). The elit of whom Iam one an of whom 1 Aa | fr ateay one when Tasered tha the Photograph wa ea image without code—even if, obviouly, cei cod J ao infec os seeding off—che reli do notte che photograph for & “copy” of reali, bu for an emanation fait reliy: 4 magi, oot an ae To ask whether & photograph is analogical a coded isnot a good means of finaly, The important thing is hat the photograph pos 88) cet i Pomeee ah Auvhal cab on sees evident ce, nd a teeny Bee ot on pt bt ot toe : cumcipal ing on the poverty of the images which ac BI pany the cending of » novel: if this novel rakes” me properly, no mental image. To reading’s Deanbof-tmage coxresponds the Phowgraph's Totally ‘of-mage, not only because ics already an image in ite, 371 All te authors concur, Saree sys, in remark ‘buc because tis wery special image gives if out as com: eecneah \. plete—integral, we might say, playing on the word, The _ photographic image i full crammed: 0 room, nothing canbe added it Hae, whote res maceral s photographic, the peteness (which ind image does not, howeves, have chis is fortnate for the cinema). Why? Because the photo- ‘raph, taken in fox, tiemplled,censelesly drawn toward other views; in the cinema, no doubt, these is always a photographic seferene, but this referent sift, it does not rake a claim in favor of its reali, i does noe protest its former existence; it does not cing t0 me specie Like the real word, che filmic wotld i sussined ‘by the presumption thar, as Hussel says, "the experience (emo will constantly contin 10 How by in the sume constOES ESO Dootte tive syle; bat the PRorogreph breeks the “constutve syle” (this is ts astosthmen); is witout fuer (is {sits pathos, ts melancholy; i ino proensiy, whereas the cinema is protensive, hence inno way melancholic (oat geen? Tes, den simply "normale lie). Motinles, dhe Photograph flows back from presentation ean pt this another way. Hete again the Winer Garden Phocogeaph. Lam slone with ia fone of it, Toe circle is ose, there is no cape. I sufer, motionless Cruel, sterile deficiency: I cannot truform aay if, 1 cannot let my gaze dif no cua will help me wer tis suffering which I expsince entirely on the level ofthe iages finite (this wby,depice its codes, T cannot read photograph) the Phoograph—my Phocogragh— is withou culure\when its punfl, noting in can transform grief ine"mauming\ Ad if dialectic is thar thought which masters the comrpible Had convers the negation of dea aco the power to work hen the pho soph is undialcia: i i « denatured cheater where death cannot "be coovemplated,” eefected and iter aries 0 agsin: the deal thener of Death, the fore- lone ofthe Tragic exclaes all prticaion, ll eabar- ss, may we Paitin, «Stats, but 4 pnoeogeaph? Llanos place a rial (on ny desk, album) unless, somehork I roid looking at it (or avoid its looking at me), deibéaey disappointing is unendurable peninde and, by my very ieatention, a ‘aching it co an cocely dierent class of feshes: che avoship an Image, gol Nrnenetag > voll ewe — PCr ; as hese Bhs gorates get inp ef Conek scons which ave Hal te Grd ilies Soe ‘cing seen—on thei shiny sls sutace. (Tete ea Ta dhe Photograph, Time's immabilation sues ott) an exceive, monies mode: Tine is engorged (whence o) Ga vanveo, rqentee, the eelaton with the Tablaww Vivant, whose mythic proto. ing asleep in Sleeping Beauty). Ome ig asleep in Sleeping . Sika | verlant trp isthe pence fl The te Phowgraph is “nets.” mingled with oat obi everéay lif, does ot keep it fom having an Cnigmace pio of inacaliy, a veange sis, the ass, ofan ares (have ead that te nabs ofthe wilage™= 27, fof Monte, in the: province of Albacete, ived this wayts 3 55 © fete on tine steed inthe pat, even wile reading newspapers end listening tt Poowogaph never, in esened memor/"t¢hose EM tense ofthe Photograph is econ) hur i actly [As est) blocks memory, quickly becomes @ counter-memory, Ome day, some friends were talking owe their dildhood semi hey had any mie; ba 1, who had jos eet Tooking a my od phorogrep, had noe lee. Surrounded by these phorprphs I could n0 longer console myself sein ie ines "Sweet as memory, the mone Rep the bedroom’ He Photograph dos oe “scep” the ba room: no odor, npumsi,othing but the exrbient thing. The Poocghih vse noe beens i hows ‘violent things, but because ofeach occasion it fills the Tig y force, and becese in cing ca be rhs ot rasfrmel (chet we can smcimes eal mild dos not contradict violence: nny sy he soem, bt v0 riolent, and I call it $0). = foxlovenpe ve ce vee, gine of Pte add tenge | at pasise= Absobee 9M ie ee Bega 2! hese young phorprphers who are at work BHO) i he wot, remind pon the apr of acral, do not know tha hey ate agens of Death This is tbe way in which or ie assumes Death wth dhe denying li of she crac “alive” of which the Phorprphes iin «sense the profesional For Pho copra ‘Bir Miri alls the “ers of eth beinning in the oad HANGERS intents eetaey, foe my pare I Should prec neat of contanty relocating the a sent of Phorogaphy in soil and economic cone, ‘ee should also inquire at dhelanchopolopzl place of Denth and of se new iage\For Death mo be some cere in a scey fino Tonge (or less aensly in ree.G.0 _—eligion, i matte eaewheres peehaps inthis image which PERLI™ produces Death while trying to preserve life. Coatem- Po WATT Widiawal OTF, PRraphy may Cortespond to dhe inersion, in out modem seit, of an asymbolc Death, outs fn, tide of seal, ~~ ida ere diver fecal Deh fe / Deh the aadigm i re the inti po fom the alpine t ‘Wath te Photograph, we enter aco flat Death. One Destin day, eaving one of my cae, someone sid t0 me with inal; "You elk about Death very fly.” —As if he horror of Death were not peciely its laine! The bor faust have some historical elation with what to asm click, the one separting ga! tor is this: noting to say about he death of one whom fove mot, nothing to say about her photogeaph, which I contemplate without ever being abe to get tothe heart of i, to eanaform i The only “thought” I can have shar the end of this frst deach, my own death is inscribed; berween the eo, nothing more than walking; T have no source than thi omy: co speak ofthe “nothing to =” “The only way I can transform the Photograph is ito refuse: either the drawer ot the wastebaskee. Not only does ie commonly have the fate of paper (petshable), bur leven if ic is stached to more lasting suppor, cis sill mortal: like a ing organism, i is born on the level of © the sprouting silver grain, it flowsishes e moment, then ages... Attacked by light, by humid, i fades, weakens, vanishes; thee is nothing left ro do but hrow it away Butler societies managed 40 chat memory, the substcue fot life was eternal and tha atleast ce cing which spoke Death should iself be immorel: this was che Monument. Bur by making the (moral) Photograph into the general snd somehow natucal witness of "what has been,” modern socieey bas renounced the Monument. A pradox: the same centuy invented History and Photograph Bat His tory i a memory fabticated accoeding to positive for rmulas, a pote intellectual discourse which abolishes mythic Time; and the Photograph is «certain but fugitive testimony; 90 that everything, roday, preperes our race For ‘his impotence: zo be no longer sble to conceive daration, flecsively or symbolically: she age of the Photograph is the age of revolutions, contestations, asaiinations,explovos in oy, of ipsa, denis en hat bb wl lodge. Te ba send dip peared 1am, I on low fy oe of a wines (a wits ofthe Tne), a ths bok sea ‘Whit haw be doe ay wih slong wih his opaph which pls fide, snd wl seday be thrown oxy fot by meson persons fr thet - (ih wa ale, hi pore len font of te et, bal, sometiner “how {oper love In fon ofthe only poop a which Tan nytt sd note pete, cape who T now loved eachother I rela i loveseteanre ‘hich ping fo dspee frre fotos Ua ne, no one wl ay longer be eo exif hinting Sil remain buen ndierene Nati Thar w ine inlbl, hac alone ase his cy, when I die? Not only SS 94! Hes de and bis going die.” Aumxsoes Garonen: Ponmnar oF Lins Par 18554p “ae Pobie is 4 thgaphy gesoms 4 eypioten Top Tee Pavete vate raps, in which I read period contemporsey with my youth, or with my mother, oc beyond, with my grad patents, and ico which [projec a roubling beng hac of the lineage of which Iam the fal team. Bu thi i alo trae ofthe photographs which a fst glance bave no lin, ven 4 metnymie one, with my exitence (for insane, sll journalistic phorogeaphe). Each photograph & zed st the private appearance of ies referee fbe age of Photos: apy corespoads precisely tthe explosion af the peiate fewo the publi eather oc the eesti of «ew socal he priv is consumed es sch, publ ‘he Pres agian the privy of Sait ai He roving Ais of legion to. gander Hay 1s snovement), But sine the privat isnot oly one of or goods (Calling under che hiorcal laws of propery), sine iis ako the sbioiely precios naib ie sore ay ag i fee (fe 0 abolish i) a be Condition of an ineiriy which I belive ie end with my erty of, you like, with che Ineacable of which Feo, Imus, by # neceny resin, recon sere the division of pli and privates I wan 0 ter, lnweroriy without yielding intimacy. I experience the Photograph andthe world in which patiptesaccond- ing 1 wo rons on one side the Image, onthe her, sy phorgraph on oe sd, unconeeo, shifting, aie, ‘heise (even if Tam absvely sere by) on the other the baring he wounded Ural the teu deine imate ste of ‘he ati: someone wh canoe—ce wil ot—achiwe the 98] mastery of # profesion, But in che feld of phorographic practice, i is the amateur, on the conteary, who is the fosumption of the profesional: for ic is he who stands closer to the noeme of Phocogsaphy.) ET like & photograph, if ie disturbs me, T linger over it, What am I doing, duting the whole time Ttemain with i T ook a iT serotnie i asf wanted to know more about the thing or che pect it epresens. Los a the depths of the Win ter Garden, my mother’s face is vagoe, faded, In a fist impulse, exclaimed: “There she is! She's ely there! At Inst, there she i!” Now I claim to know—and ro be sble to say adequately hy, a what she consis, I want t9 futline the loved face by thought, co make-ic iro she ‘ange Geld of an intense observson; I want to enlepe this face in order to ste ie beter, wo understand it betes, to know its eth (and somesines, navel, I confide this task ro laboratory). [believe cha by enlarging the decsil in serie” (cach shot engendering smaller details than ac the preceding tage), I will fintlly seach mp mother’s ety being, What Marey and Muybridge have done as operators I myelf want t0 do as spectator: 1 decompose, 1 enlarge, and, s0 t0 speak, I retard, a order 10 have time to Bnow at lass, The Photograph justifies this deste, ‘even if it des nor say i: Tean ave the fond bope of teuth only because Phocography’s noeme is Aicoves 99precisely shat-basboen, and because I lve in the illusion that it sufices eo clean the surface ofthe image in order #2 secede to what is Bebind: to seuinize means to turn the photograph over, ro enter into the paper's depth ro reach fis other side (what is hidden is for us Westerners more ‘rae than what is vsble). Alas however hard I look, I discover nothing: if T enlarge, {see nothing but the grain of the paper: T undo che image for the sake of ics sub seance; and if Tdo ace enlarge, if T content myself with scrutinizing, I obtain this sole knowledge, long since por sessed a ise glance: that this indeed has been: the tora ofthe ecew had produced nothing In front of the Winter Garden Photograph Iam a bad dreamer who vainly holds ‘out hie arms roward the possestion of che image; I am GGolaud exclaiming "Misery of my life!” because he will over know Méliaade's uth, (Mélisunde does aot con- cal, but she does not spetk. Such it the Photograph: ie cannot zy what i et 6) FO onsen en (Babli in in certain photograph I believe I pee “ Mareioe DesordeValore teproduces be face be sight api ess of Bor vasean continue to speak of “Ikeness" without ever having seen the mode. As inthe case of most of Nadu's porersits (or of Avedon’, todey): Gulaot is “tke” because he con- forms to his myth of austerity; Dumas, swollen, beeing, because I already know is self-importance and his fecundity; Oftenbach, becsoe I know that his music has something (tepredly) witty about it; Rossini looks false, even crooked (the semblance that resembles); Marceline Desbordes-Valimore reproduces in hor face che slightly stupid vieus of her vetss; Kropotkin has the bright eyes of anarchising ideslism, ee, I see ehem all, Lean spon- taneously cll them "likenesses" becnuse they conform 10 ‘what Texpect of them A poo «comirari: finding myself An uncerain, amythic subject, bow could I find myself “like”? Al ook lide is oer photographs of myself, and this to infinisy: no one is ever anything but the copy of copy, teal or mental (a€ most, I can sey that in certain photographs I andere myrelf, of aot, depending on ‘whether oe not I find myself in accord withthe image of snyself I wane to give), For all ts banal appearance (che thing one s87¢ about a portrait), this imaginery anal ‘ogy is full of extravagance: X shows me the photograph of one of his fiends whoen he has talked abou, whom I Ihave never sem and yet, Tcl myself (I don'e know why), "Tm sore Sylvain doesn’ look like that” Uli mately a phorograph looks like anyone except che person i represents. For reverablance refers to the subjec’s identiy, an absurd, purely legal, even penal affair; like ness gives out entity "as elf” whereas I want a subject in Mallarmé’ terme —'as into itself eeenity transforms Bite wat pore fay it Likeness leaves me unsatisfied and somehow skeptical (certialy this is the sad disappointment I experience looking at the ordinary photographs of my mother— ‘whereas the only one which has given me the splendor of her truth is precisely alot, emote photograph, one which {does aot look “like” her, the photograph of «chil I never new) ken he Photograph somedines makes ep gest what we aver se inal face (Orin 4 face reflec) in mon)" pvc fens che vaca ono ofa ele bch comes om se Teno. Ina ean poogag have my fhe ter “look.” The Photograph gives litle suth.on condi: “Tau e pres eat he ny Bae eis rh nthe oie eal fess reds CHET flaca, Sines Ta ake Owe Les sere cdalion repteens young woman and Ber Shi ely the bmp moter and pe? Bat m0, is fare edhe son (ny one; do’ kro hs 3 roc fom te clots (he eherealed photograph dot ctw muck of them) as fom the tract of he fe fetwcen my pent face and. mp others sere fs bone incidence, te ash ofthe husband, te they wtih bas eahioed he ounenace, 204 2 oF Sono tome (he baby? nothing more new!) Tn che Bus more insidiow, mote penetrating. thanThe rock same way, this phorogeap of my father as 2 childs nod ing 20 do with pictures of him as « man; ba certain de- fais, certain Tineaments connect hit face fo my grand (mother’s and to mine—in sense over his bead Photography can reves! (in the chemical sense of the tee), but what it reveals isa certain persistence of che specie According 19 Léon Pere Quint onthe desth of the Prince de Polignac (son of Chacles X's minister), rouse sid hat “his face ad remained cat of his linesae tneerior to bit individual sou.” The Phorograph is Ske Gd age: even in is splendor, it disincanates the ce, shanifens is_genedc estence. Proust (again) said of Carles Haas (the model for Swann), according t0 {George Printer, tht he bad a short, steht nose, bu thes ld age had tuned his skin co parchment, revealing ee Jewish nose beneath. Tincage reveals an identcy stronger, more intersting shan legal saras—more reassuring a wel force thought Shorigns soothes us, wheceas tha ofthe fouredstarbe ws, sgonae as; but chi discovery disappoints us becsse even wipe ie asrts a petmanence (which isthe eath of the ree aot my owe), it bates the mysterious diference of being suing fom one a he same family: what relation cen ihere be beeween my mother and er ancestor #9 FO ‘pidable, so monumental, s© Hogolian, 3o much the in venation of the inhuman distance ofthe Stock? [105mus therefore submit otis low I cannot, nse, cannot reach into the Phtostaph, only sweep ie with my lance, like « smooth sueface. The Phorograph i lt, lai ‘he tue sense ofthe nal, hae what | mat elas Iisa misake to anciate Photography, by Teton ofits technic origi, with the fodon oF ae paage (ceomera obscare fe iat (such was the name of st appari snttior to Photog raphy, which peemiced ding an object hough & ‘prism, one ee onthe model, he other onthe pape); for, . rom the eye's viewpoinr, "dhe esence of the image isto slrogetber ouside, without ivy, and yet more in Jecesible and mysterious than the chought of the inne 8 being; without sgnifaton, yer imunoning wp the Pepin of aay posible meaning; unrevealed yet manifest, having tha absenceas pretence which contre the lure tote tsa of se Sens Ban) Ihe Photograph cannot be pense, Fis ecae of is evidential power. Inthe image, a8 Sart sys, the ob ject yields itself wholly, and out vision of i is crdain— ‘ontcay 0 the rext of other perceptions which give me te object in e vague, arguable manner, and therfore Incite me suspicions to what Ishak Tam seeing. This certine is sovercgn because T have the leisure wo observe the phorogeaph with ines, bu SS so, however long I 106/ sel te oon; for anyone who holds a phowogreph in his hand tena ior ma | as cis a mater of being—and 00 thing the Photographs evidence ake, Seeing 2 bore, ped iavolves 1 { Yess ina BY) ene san ene dierent sn is sll, ick, «pace Pom fac, and whats ore, Sy cali. Be «body, es wef Srey by ad face of eovel pon? Si mor phy (hs is noeme) aati te ex Pa aba {ear dc tin the phompph comple i init" beyond single rs por tsi. Hse the Phoogp’s pase, becom ain fr tan crespond toy fond dese en rerileting expel evident (bine loe.be Je (cannot prove it). This Phos) pet improbable (L eg Tae onnaleie (one ea dem Tejce inshore 1 doubt 1 evi foc Teich by nacre en evidence: er nce, whether legal oF pase, I prove or the Photograph, Jro7"No ipa of pene 6 dence is what does not watt to be decomposed). The air isnot a schematic, intellectual datum, the way 2 sithouete is Nor isthe tir simple anslogy—however extended — 1s i "likeness" No, the aire thae exorbitant thing which induces from body to soul—enimuda, lite individual soul, good in one person, bad in another. Hence I was Ieafing through the phocographs of my mother according to an iniitic path which led me to that ery, dhe end ofall language: “There she isl": fise of all ¢ few unworthy pictzes which grve me only her erodes identity, her legal status; then certain more numerous photograp 1 could read her “individal expression” (analogoss pho tographs,"ikeneses"); finally the Winter Garden Photo- agreph, i which I do much more chan recognize her (clumsy word): in which I discover her: a sudden awake ning, outside of “likeness” 2 sator ia which words fail, the tare, pethape unique evidence ofthe "So, yes, 30 much in which sand no more.” ‘The air (I use thie word, lacking anything beter, foe) the expression of truth) i kind of iteacable supple eat of dent, what is given as an ac of gre, DR ‘f any“importnce”: che ar expresses the subject, inst as that subject asigns self no importance. In this ver cious photograph, the being I love, whom I have loved i fot separnted from iself: at last it coincides. And, my teriously, this coincidence i «kind of metamorphosis. Al the photographs of my mother which I was looking through were alte like so many masks; atthe last, sud ely the mask vanished: theee remained a soul, ageless ‘but not timeles, since thi sir was the perso T used 10 frogsce, consubstantial with her face, each day of her long. Iie Pethaps the ait ultimately something moral, mysted- ously contsbutiag 10 the face the telecon of a life value? Avedon has photographed the leader of the Amer. jean Labor Party, Philip Randolph (who has jose diet, as T write these lines); inthe photograph, I read an air ‘goodness (no imple of power: that i certain). Thos the alr ie the luminous shadow which accompanies the body; ‘and if che phorograph fails to show this sit, hen the body ‘moves without a shadow, and once this shadow is severed, Jn the myth of che Woman without a Shadow, dhere remains no mote than a sterile body, I it by tis tensous ‘umbilical cord that the photographer gives life; if he can ‘ot, ether by lack of talent ot bad luck, supply the ean parent sou! is bight shadow, che subject dies forever, I bhave been photographed a thousand simes; but if thee housund photographs have each “missed” my ait (and perhaps, after all, have none?), my efigy will perpetuate (forthe limited time the paper lat) aap identi, not ay value, Applied to someone we lve, tie ssi lacerstng ean be feustated for life of che “ee image.” Since neither Nadar nor Avedon has photographed my mother, the survival ofthis image has depended on the luck of & picture made by 8 provincial photographer who, an ia ferent meditor, himself long since dead, did not know that whet he was making permanent was the tuth—ehe ‘euch for me “Trying to make myself write some sor of com- mentary on the Ines “emergency” reportage, 1 tear up my notes as soon o5 I write them. ‘What—nothing to say shou death, suicide, wounds, ac- cident? No, nothing t say aboot dhese photographs in which T see surgeons’ gowns, bodies Ising on the ground, broken las, ex, Oh if there were oa a look, a subject's Took, if only someone in the photographs were looking &« 1 For the Photograph as this power—which iti creasingly losing, the frontal pose being mest often con sidered archaic nowadayt—of locking me straight in the tye (here, moreover, is another difference: in film, no one ever looks at me: tis forbidden —by the Fiction). ‘The phorogeaphic look has something paradoxical shout i¢ which is sometimes to be mec with in life: the ‘other day, in café, young boy came in alone, glanced taroand the rom, end occasionally his eyes tested on me; Then had the certainty that he was looking at me without however being sure that he was sing me: an inconcev thle distortion: how can we look without seeing? One ‘might say thac the Phorograph separates atencion from perception, and yiel&s up only the former, even if itis impossible without the Inter; this is thae aberrant ching, noes without noeme, an action of thoughe ‘hought, an aim without a sarge. And yer i is his scandal fous movement which produces the carest quality of an ‘That isthe paradox; how can one have an dnillgens"How coe one hive x italien ir witht taking of npbing ‘nseliget? A. Kane Fi Mowe a STUD, Pa, 1996 Gather /Meharan 160 thinking about anything intelligent, just by to this piece of black plastic? Tt is becuse the looking i Took, eliding the vision, sems held back by something Jnvrit, "Tate lower-class boy who holds « newborn ‘appy ageiast his check (Kertész, 1928), looks into the fens with his sad, jelous, fearful eyes: what pitiable, Incereing pensivenes! In fac, he is looking a€ nothing he retains within himelf his love and his fear: tha isthe Look. "Now she Look if tsi (all the more, if tls if traverses, with the photograph, Time)—ihe Look: is ah once the efect of truth an )inepced by splendid cieniic spice and investigating the physiognomy of the “Galion_and Mohamed published certsia plawes of faces... Ie was concluded, of course, hat no disease could be eead in them. Bu since all these pasines sill, ook at me, neacly a hundsed years later, have the cons &/“%, ‘ways poteniallycrzy: i the effece of madness ‘verse notion: that whoever foks you straight in the eye is. mad % Sach woul be the Phorprapis fa”: by lending me vs nee Seo he naa tee a ow) heart ene of | : Ca a aa wih a CET): ae RE SvHTETIAI nd -exclamaivey- ibrar ‘Higy HAT ING PINT where wee (love, compassion, Iiel,eachasasm, desir) isa guarantee of Being, Ie then fppeoache, ro all intents, madness, i joins whae Kristeva calls“ odie folle [233“thes looking nshing: ‘bo etins sti ial "hs hve end Bs for ‘this he Look “The woeme of Photography i simple, banal fo depth "that as Ben.” know out tes ‘What a whole book (even « sor one) 1 Aincover something 1 know a Ss lance? Yes, bur such evidence can bea sling of madness The Photograph it Sh extended, loaded evdence—as if i cariaated noe she fare of what i epesents quite the convene) butts very extence, The image, sey phenomenolopy, is on SBtceas nothing. Nw in the Pheogrpb, wa posi ot only the ase as 5 on ad the ian wovermen, of SRT ems the farce ti] hier bas indeed exe and chat ith been there whecel Tree it Here is where the madness fr unl this day no represen cold assze me ofthe pst of «thing = ‘ope by intermedi; ot with the Photograph, my ce tein i immediate: po one in he world can andecive toe, The Phorogeaph then becomes a bimte medio, © tev form of hallucination: fate on the Hevel of percep ton tren the lve of dine: temporal allan Yo w speak, a modest, shared hallucination (Ga the’ One Tand "eis not there” 00 the oer "but ic has indo teen"): aad image, cafe by reali. Tam tying sender the special quality ofthis halluc tion, and Tin thi che same evening of «day I bad fain ben looking a photographs of my mothe, I went ‘Sc Flin’ Gatonove with some fiends Twas sa, ch Jers qafilm exasperated me; but when Casanova began dancing With the young automaton, my eyes were touched with a kind of painful and delicious items, as if 1 were su enly experiencing the effec of a strange drug; cach de tail, which I was seing so exactly, savoring it, so ro speak, down to it lat evidence, overwhelmed me: the figure’s slendemess, its enuicy—as if chere were only a wing body under the fattened gown; the frayed gloves of white oss silk; the fine (though tovehing) absurdity of esrich feathers in the haie, cha pained yer individeal, innocent face: something desperately inert and yet available, of fered, afeconate, according to an angelic impulse of ‘good will”... At which moment I could not help think ng aboot Phorogeaphy: for I could say all chis abou che photographs which couched me (out of which T had methodicilly consiated Phowography ise) here was a sor of link ( Vromiten? Is one not in love with cein photographs? (Looking at some photographs of the Provstian worl, I fall ia love wih Julia Bare, withthe Duc de Guiche...) Yer ie was not quite chat. Ie was a broader current than & lover’ sentiment. In che love stared by Photography (by certain photographs), enother music is heard, is name oly old-ashioned: Ply. T collezed in a lait choughe ‘he images which had “pricked me (since ths isthe ac- tion ofthe punctum), like that of the Black woman with the gold necklace and the strapped pumps. In exch of 116] them, iescapably, I passed beyond the unreality of the resented, I enterel rely int the spectacle, into co my armas what is dead, what i toing to de, as Niewsche did when, as Podach tells ws, om January 3, 1889, he chew himself in rears on the nec of ‘eazen hore: gone mad for Pty’ sok. Spray] Sc

Você também pode gostar

• Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike

  

  No Everand

  Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike

  Phil Knight

  Nota: 4.5 de 5 estrelas

  4.5/5 (537)
• The Yellow House: A Memoir (2019 National Book Award Winner)

  

  No Everand

  The Yellow House: A Memoir (2019 National Book Award Winner)

  Sarah M. Broom

  Nota: 4 de 5 estrelas

  4/5 (98)
• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

  

  No Everand

  The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

  Mark Manson

  Nota: 4 de 5 estrelas

  4/5 (5794)
• • Revistas
  • Podcasts
  • Partituras
• Yes Please

  

  No Everand

  Yes Please

  Amy Poehler

  Nota: 4 de 5 estrelas

  4/5 (1891)
• The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living

  

  No Everand

  The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living

  Meik Wiking

  Nota: 3.5 de 5 estrelas

  3.5/5 (400)
• Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

  

  No Everand

  Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

  Angela Duckworth

  Nota: 4 de 5 estrelas

  4/5 (588)
• Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

  

  No Everand

  Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

  Ashlee Vance

  Nota: 4.5 de 5 estrelas

  4.5/5 (474)
• A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius: A Memoir Based on a True Story

  

  No Everand

  A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius: A Memoir Based on a True Story

  Dave Eggers

  Nota: 3.5 de 5 estrelas

  3.5/5 (231)
• Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race

  

  No Everand

  Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race

  Margot Lee Shetterly

  Nota: 4 de 5 estrelas

  4/5 (895)
• Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

  

  No Everand

  Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

  Doris Kearns Goodwin

  Nota: 4.5 de 5 estrelas

  4.5/5 (234)
• Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

  

  No Everand

  Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

  Chris Voss

  Nota: 4.5 de 5 estrelas

  4.5/5 (838)
• The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

  

  No Everand

  The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

  Siddhartha Mukherjee

  Nota: 4.5 de 5 estrelas

  4.5/5 (271)
• Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America

  

  No Everand

  Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America

  Gilbert King

  Nota: 4.5 de 5 estrelas

  4.5/5 (266)
• On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal

  

  No Everand

  On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal

  Naomi Klein

  Nota: 4 de 5 estrelas

  4/5 (74)
• Principles: Life and Work

  

  No Everand

  Principles: Life and Work

  Ray Dalio

  Nota: 4 de 5 estrelas

  4/5 (599)
• The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America

  

  No Everand

  The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America

  George Packer

  Nota: 4 de 5 estrelas

  4/5 (45)
• Fear: Trump in the White House

  

  No Everand

  Fear: Trump in the White House

  Bob Woodward

  Nota: 3.5 de 5 estrelas

  3.5/5 (738)
• Rise of ISIS: A Threat We Can't Ignore

  

  No Everand

  Rise of ISIS: A Threat We Can't Ignore

  Jay Sekulow

  Nota: 3.5 de 5 estrelas

  3.5/5 (137)
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

  

  No Everand

  The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

  Ben Horowitz

  Nota: 4.5 de 5 estrelas

  4.5/5 (345)
• Steve Jobs

  

  No Everand

  Steve Jobs

  Walter Isaacson

  Nota: 4.5 de 5 estrelas

  4.5/5 (806)
• The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

  

  No Everand

  The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

  Thomas L. Friedman

  Nota: 3.5 de 5 estrelas

  3.5/5 (2259)
• Bad Feminist: Essays

  

  No Everand

  Bad Feminist: Essays

  Roxane Gay

  Nota: 4 de 5 estrelas

  4/5 (1016)
• Angela's Ashes: A Memoir

  

  No Everand

  Angela's Ashes: A Memoir

  Frank McCourt

  Nota: 4.5 de 5 estrelas

  4.5/5 (440)
• The Glass Castle: A Memoir

  

  No Everand

  The Glass Castle: A Memoir

  Jeannette Walls

  Nota: 4.5 de 5 estrelas

  4.5/5 (1713)
• The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

  

  No Everand

  The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

  Brené Brown

  Nota: 4 de 5 estrelas

  4/5 (1090)
• John Adams

  

  No Everand

  John Adams

  David McCullough

  Nota: 4.5 de 5 estrelas

  4.5/5 (2409)
• The Outsider: A Novel

  

  No Everand

  The Outsider: A Novel

  Stephen King

  Nota: 4 de 5 estrelas

  4/5 (1839)
• The Light Between Oceans: A Novel

  

  No Everand

  The Light Between Oceans: A Novel

  M.L. Stedman

  Nota: 4.5 de 5 estrelas

  4.5/5 (789)
• The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)

  

  No Everand

  The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)

  Viet Thanh Nguyen

  Nota: 4.5 de 5 estrelas

  4.5/5 (121)
• A Man Called Ove: A Novel

  

  No Everand

  A Man Called Ove: A Novel

  Fredrik Backman

  Nota: 4.5 de 5 estrelas

  4.5/5 (4609)
• Wolf Hall: A Novel

  

  No Everand

  Wolf Hall: A Novel

  Hilary Mantel

  Nota: 4 de 5 estrelas

  4/5 (3811)
• Brooklyn: A Novel

  

  No Everand

  Brooklyn: A Novel

  Colm Toibin

  Nota: 3.5 de 5 estrelas

  3.5/5 (1937)
• The Woman in Cabin 10

  

  No Everand

  The Woman in Cabin 10

  Ruth Ware

  Nota: 3.5 de 5 estrelas

  3.5/5 (2322)
• Little Women

  

  No Everand

  Little Women

  Louisa May Alcott

  Nota: 4 de 5 estrelas

  4/5 (104)
• Manhattan Beach: A Novel

  

  No Everand

  Manhattan Beach: A Novel

  Jennifer Egan

  Nota: 3.5 de 5 estrelas

  3.5/5 (792)
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower

  

  No Everand

  The Perks of Being a Wallflower

  Stephen Chbosky

  Nota: 4.5 de 5 estrelas

  4.5/5 (2104)
• Sing, Unburied, Sing: A Novel

  

  No Everand

  Sing, Unburied, Sing: A Novel

  Jesmyn Ward

  Nota: 4 de 5 estrelas

  4/5 (1103)
• The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel

  

  No Everand

  The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel

  Garth Stein

  Nota: 4 de 5 estrelas

  4/5 (4200)
• Her Body and Other Parties: Stories

  

  No Everand

  Her Body and Other Parties: Stories

  Carmen Maria Machado

  Nota: 4 de 5 estrelas

  4/5 (821)
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

  

  No Everand

  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

  Betty Smith

  Nota: 4.5 de 5 estrelas

  4.5/5 (1929)
• The Constant Gardener: A Novel

  

  No Everand

  The Constant Gardener: A Novel

  John le Carré

  Nota: 3.5 de 5 estrelas

  3.5/5 (104)