Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography

Description

This was Roland Barthes's last book, combining a selection of photographs with reflections on photography. Examining the themes of presence and absence, the relationship between photography and theatre, history and death, the book begins as an investigation into the nature of photographs. Then, as Barthes contemplates a photograph of his mother as a child, it becomes an exposition of his own mind.

Roland Barthes was born in 1915 and studied French literature and classics at the University of Paris. After teaching French at universities in Romania and Egypt, he joined the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, where he devoted himself to research in sociology and lexicology. He was a professor at the College de France until his death in 1980.

Of all his works it is the most accessible in language and the most revealing about the author. And effortlessly, as if in passing, his reflections on photography raise questions and doubts which will permanently affect the vision of the reader * Guardian * Roland Barthes' final book - less a critical essay than a suite of valedictory meditations - is his most beautiful, and most painful * Observer * Profoundly shaped the way the medium is regarded * Guardian * I am moved by the sense of discovery in Camera Lucida, by the glimpse of a return to a lost world * New Society * Of all his works it is the most accessible in language and the most revealing about the author. And effortlessly, as if in passing, his reflections on photography raise questions and doubts which will permanently affect the vision of the reader * Guardian *