Everyone experiences photographs differently, whether it is how they are viewed, or even interpreted. In Camera Lucida, Roland Barthes explains not only how he sees photography, but the impact it has had on him. Since photography is one of the newer forms of art, he begins with comparing it to a more traditional style of art, such as painting. Some think that painters were the ones who invented photography, because they initially captured many things we photograph today in their work. However, Barthes claims that chemists were the real founders. Photography was discovered when scientists found “that silver halogens were sensitive to light.” The Latin meaning of photograph, “image revealed by the actions of light,” describes this result. Along with this belief, Roland Barthes has a theory about every aspect of photography. For example, he couldn’t care less about color on photography. He says that, “color is a coating applied later on to the original truth of the black-and-white photograph.” He thinks adding color can be superficial and causes deception. Barthes also believes that photography shouldn’t be used for summoning history. Photographs are used more as evidence for what actually happened or existed. Barthes also brings up a good point: “The photograph does not necessarily say what is no longer, but only and for certain what has been.” They are part of only a specific time and don’t create, but validate a story. Barthes talks about the first photographs that were taken. Nicéphore Niepce took them of a dinner table. Barthes explains that the photographs probably looked like a painting to him, even though he was looking through an extremely foreign, and new instrument. Like a “martian can resemble a man,” the camera was able to resemble aspects of a painting. The invention of photography made it easier for many to believe events from the past. A moment in reality that can be viewed as well as held defies all doubt.
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