“In an initial period, Photography, in order to surprise, photographs the notable; but soon, by a familiar reversal, it decrees notable whatever it photographs. The 'anything whatever' then becomes the sophisticated acme of value.”

—  Roland Barthes

Source: Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In an initial period, Photography, in order to surprise, photographs the notable; but soon, by a familiar reversal, it …" by Roland Barthes?
Roland Barthes photo
Roland Barthes 39
French philosopher, critic and literary theorist 1915–1980

Related quotes

Ansel Adams photo

“Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer - and often the supreme disappointment.”

Ansel Adams (1902–1984) American photographer and environmentalist
Roman Vishniac photo

“The purpose of photography is the transmission of a visualized sector of life through the medium of the camera into a mental process that starts with the photographer's thinking about the subject he photographs and is continued in the mind of the spectator.”

Roman Vishniac (1897–1990) American photographer

Deschin, Jacob. "Nature as it is". New York Times (1857-Current file); Feb 3, 1952; Proquest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2002) pg. X14

Gerhard Richter photo

“As far as the surface is concerned – oil on canvas, conventionally applied – my pictures have little to do with the original photograph. They are totally painting (whatever that may mean). On the other hand, they are so like the photograph that the thing that distinguished the photograph from all other pictures remains intact.”

Gerhard Richter (1932) German visual artist, born 1932

Notes, 1964-65; as cited on collected quotes on the website of Gerhard Richter: on 'Photo-paintings' https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/quotes/subjects-2/photo-paintings-12
1960's

Gore Vidal photo

“It is notable how little empathy is cultivated or valued in our society.”

Gore Vidal (1925–2012) American writer

Source: 1990s, Screening History (1992), Ch. 2: Fire Over England, p. 49
Context: It is notable how little empathy is cultivated or valued in our society. I put this down to our traditional racism and obsessive sectarianism. Even so, one would think that we would be encouraged to project ourselves into the character of someone of a different race or class, if only to be able to control him. But no effort is made.

Dorothea Lange photo

“It is no accident that the photographer becomes a photographer any more than the lion tamer becomes a lion tamer.”

Dorothea Lange (1895–1965) American photojournalist
Susan Sontag photo

“Evans wanted his photographs to be "literate, authoritative, transcendent." The moral universe of the 1930s being no longer ours, these adjectives are barely creditable today. Nobody demands that photography be literate. Nobody can imagine how it could be authoritative. Nobody understands how anything, least of all a photograph, could be transcendent.”

Susan Sontag book On Photography

"America, Seen Through Photographs, Darkly", p. 31
On Photography (1977)

David Levithan photo

“A photograph it a souvenir of a memory.
It is not a moment.
It is the looking at the photograph that becomes the moment. Your own moment.”

David Levithan book Every You, Every Me

Source: Every You, Every Me

“Black and white are the colors of photography. To me, they symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected. Most of my photographs are of people; they are seen simply, as through the eyes of the man in the street. There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment. This kind of photography is realism. But realism is not enough—there has to be vision and the two together can make a good photograph. It is difficult to describe this thin line where matter ends and mind begins.”

Robert Frank (1924–2019) American photographer and filmmaker

Robert Frank, in: Nathan Lyons, Photographers on photography: a critical anthology, (1966), p. 66

Varadaraja V. Raman photo

“Ultimately, we all become photographs.”

Varadaraja V. Raman (1932) American physicist

REFLECTIONS ON MY MORTALITY
Truth and Tension in Science and Religion

Nicole Krauss photo

“Every year, the memories I have of my father become more faint, unclear, and distant. once they were vivid and true, then they became like photographs, and now they are more like photographs of photographs.”

Nicole Krauss The History of Love

Source: The History of Love

Related topics