Grieving for his mother, Roland Barthes looked for her in old photos – and wrote a curious, moving book that became one of the most influential studies of photography
"the Photograph mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existentially" Page 4
In other words, the photograph is never distinguished from its referent—that which it represents; it simply is what it is (illustrated by the fact that one says ‘this is me’ when showing someone a photographic image of oneself, opposed to ‘this is a picture of me.’) When we look at a photograph, it is not the actual photo that we see, for the photograph itself is rendered invisible.
when I read the quote I think about how a photograph can be looked at and repeated through word and mouth but the memories and emotions that the photograph shows can not be repeated.
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