Harchi's slim memoir captures many things: love of devoted parents, the first/second-generational immigration experience (Morocco to France), the tendHarchi's slim memoir captures many things: love of devoted parents, the first/second-generational immigration experience (Morocco to France), the tender friendships of youth, and the racism, sexism, and police brutality in France. She notes several assaults on Arab and Muslim youth in France during her teenage years (brutal beatings of young men, young women attacked for wearing hijab), and how these experiences shaped her life and led to work in sociology.
Not a groundbreaking memoir, but a unique voice. I picked this up because I have long enjoyed Emma Ramadan's translations, and this work continued my respect and appreciation for her work in bringing more North African/French literature to a global audience....more
"The portrait-photograph is a closed field of forces. Four image-repertoires intersect here, oppose and distort each other. In front of the lens, I am"The portrait-photograph is a closed field of forces. Four image-repertoires intersect here, oppose and distort each other. In front of the lens, I am at the same time: the one others think I am, the one I want others to think I am, the one the photographer thinks I am, and the one he makes use of to exhibit his art. In other words, a strange action: I do not stop imitating myself, and because of this, each time I am (or let myself be) photographed, I invariably suffer from a sensation of inauthenticity, sometimes of imposture..." (pg 13)
Barthes essay collection is a deep study of looking and observation, through the lens of the camera. Written in 1979, this was a later work for the French philosopher, but may be his best known. Perhaps the subject matter lends to that - images, photographs, history, gaze.
At the center of the essay is Barthes discussion of studium and punctum when looking at a photograph: Studium relates to the observation and a general commitment to, sometimes a brief value judgement (like/dislike), "sort of vague, slippery, irresponsible interest one takes in all people, entertainments... one finds 'all right'".(pg 27) Maybe best describes as a passing glance, or more modern parlance, scrolling through. Punctum relates to the object, item, or air that an observer sees right away. What "pierces, pricks, or punctuates". This may be different for each observer, in a portrait, a noticeable physical feature or piece of clothing, a facial expression, or body language. It could be something happening in the background or out of focus. It can be what "pricks" the mind to remember after you are no longer looking at the photograph. "...the punctum should be revealed only after the fact, when the photograph is no longer in front of me, and I think back on it..." (pg 53)
Barthes uses a number of images as reference, ranging from portraiture by well-known photographers like Richard Avedon and Robert Mapplethorpe, to historical and journalistic photographs of events, landscapes or architecture, to war photography.
While Part 1 is largely theoretical, referencing random photographs, Part 2 is highly personal. Barthes is writing this collection of essays shortly after his mother's death. He is in the apartment where she died and is going through her old photographs. He finds one particular photograph of his mother as a young girl that he calls the "Winter Garden Photograph", and uses this reference through several essays, discussing the imminence of Death as it relates to photography, the frozen moment, the sentimental/ordinary nature of photographs, and how every observer frames the photograph in terms of themselves as they view it.
"The date belongs to the photograph: not because it denotes style... but because it makes me lift my head, allows me to compute life, death, the inexorable extinction of the generations. I am the reference for every photograph, and this is what generates my astonishment in addressing myself to the fundamental question: why is is that I am alive here and now?" (pg 84)
All the more interesting to read CAMERA LUCIDA at a time of super-charged image saturation, applying the studium and punctum techniques to each item that we see - too numerous to count. What would Barthes say about DALL-E image creation? Photoshop? How would Barthes fathom reels, TikToks?
"One might say that the photograph separates attention from perception, and yields up only the former, even if it is impossible without the latter, this is that aberrant thing, an action of thought without thought, an aim without a target. Yet this is the scandalous movement which produces the rarest quality of an 'air'. This is the paradox: how can one have an intelligent 'air' without thinking anything intelligent, just by looking into this piece of black plastic?" (pg 111-112)...more
Ah dear friend, when something happens in life, do you ever think about the moment that caused it, the seed from which it grew? How can I explain it..Ah dear friend, when something happens in life, do you ever think about the moment that caused it, the seed from which it grew? How can I explain it... Imagine a field being sowed and all the promise that's contained in the grain of wheat, in the future harvests... it's exactly the same in life.
Sylvestre "Silvio" a man in wartime France, tells of his friendships and loves, and long-hidden secrets in their small village. It may not seem like much is happening in the countryside, but there's a lot happening behind closed doors and outside late at night!
My first Némirovsky, I was enchanted by her prose in the last days of 2023! Fire in the Blood was translated from an unfinished manuscript. You can see evidence of this in the last few chapters as the voice and tone shift slightly, but still resolve the larger story.
I'll be back for more Némirovsky - really enjoyed this. ...more
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