Art History: Photography and Roland Barthes’s Camera Lucida

You are to read closely Roland Barthes’s key book, Camera Lucida, and explore its ideas and terms as a basis
for an interpretation of one photograph, by a photographer associated with the “New York School.”
Your essay should include:

1. A main thesis statement.
2. a formal analysis of the photograph, and give specific and prolonged attention to Barthes’ ideas, explaining
   them to your reader.
3. What are Barthes’ key claims about photography?
4. What crucial insights of the text seem important to highlight and understand?
5. How might terms that Barthes uses like the photographic “studium” and “punctum” impact your reading of
   your photograph?
6. Are there other terms or passages in Barthes’ book that help clarify the photograph you are reading?
7. How might Barthes describe the photograph’s relation to time? Memory? Desire? Loss?
   Make sure you answer all the questions above and quote from the book Camera Lucida.
   You must include your chosen photograph as an image at the end of your paper. Paper length: 5-7 pages (not
   including the image), double-spaced, 12 point type.
   Photographers that you can choose from:
   Alexey Brodovitch, Robert Frank, Sid Grossman, Helen Levitt, Lisette Model, Weegee
   Bruce Davidson, Roy deCarava, Louis Faurer, William Klein, Saul Leiter, David Vestal
   Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Gary Winogrand, Lee Friedlander, Kwame Brathwaite