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“Half way through. I kind of like this not-yet-finished reviews.
Joshua T wrote this review Sunday, October 4 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Lots of interesting thoughts; the first half of the book (which Ive just completed) is very personal: what makes a good photo for Barthes.
Ive only read this book (well, half-way) and Mythologies, but I think Barthes is very readable, and always interesting. He lays out ideas, sometimes modifying them a few pages later, but in a dialogic and modest way.
Finished. Interesting. Will be re-reading, at least portions.”
“i haven't finished reading it. far from it, actually, i've only started. but i have to say, it suffers from a certain measure of intellectualisation. from a practician's point of you, it's an interesting yet highly individual way of looking.”
ßeowulf wrote this review Tuesday, November 11 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Some lovely interesting thoughts about photography.”
Amanda wrote this review Sunday, June 15 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
1 of 1 members found this review helpful“I have a very pleasant memory of Roland Barthes from my undergraduate experience, so I'm sure that any opinion I have of this book is flavored by that. Despite that, I have to say that I found this book surprisingly morbid and shallow. Not shallow in a thoughtless sense, but shallow in that his exploration of photography isn't a very deep exploration. His focus on his mother's existence, written while he himself was closing in on his own death, takes the reader through a very interesting analysis of the photograph, though. One of the things I love about Barthes's approach is that he starts with a very personal view -- very much in the vein of Proust -- and constructs a phenomenology around that. It has a romantic feel to it. The downside is that, at least in this case, it really doesn't leave the reader with any better feelings of the intrinsic attributes of the Photograph in general, as he really doesn't address a wide arrange of photographic subjects or techniques. However, it still comes off as a great starting point for exploring the philosophy of photography. It keeps meaning close to the heart, which is simply sweet.”
Wespionage wrote this review Wednesday, January 16 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This gracefully written book was author Roland Barthes’ last book; it was written about two beloved entities, photography and the author’s mother. The most poignant parts of the book, and the reason for its inclusion in this bibliography, are the chapters in which Bathes discusses his grief at the death of his mother and his search for the one photograph out of all the photographs he possessed of her that contained her true essence. The one he found most comforting, the one that to him captured the true essence of his mother was one he called the “Winter Garden Photograph,” an old and fading photograph of her as a child. Ultimately, he concludes, a photograph is about Time, Loss, Love and Death.”
mperrin wrote this review Monday, November 26 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This book changed the way i think. It is not easy, nor at all times enjoyable but it is understandably written and amazingly profound”
Zer0_effect wrote this review Thursday, September 13 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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