Realism and Imagination

mickyates Aftermath, ContextualResearch, Critical Research Journal, Dark Tourism, Documentary, ICWeek11, Ideas, Informing Contexts, Journalism, Philosophy, Photography, Project Development 4 Comments

This week has been focused on completing the Critical Review. The recent Oral Presentation was well received, although I knew that for the CR, I needed to do less on personal history and biography, and more on critical theory. I wrote and illustrated a draft, and got some very helpful feedback from Ashley – suggesting I could better explain the …

Roland Barthes – Camera Lucida – An ultimately depressing book

mickyates Books, ContextualResearch, Critical Research Journal, Ideas, Philosophy, Photography, PositionsPractice, PPWeek2 20 Comments

Camera Lucida, by Roland Barthes, is an odd book. It has become a classic text on the subject – yet Barthes was not a photographer, and had little time for colour images or ‘clever theories’ from the photographer’s perspective (such as Cartier-Bresson’s ‘Decisive Moment’). In fact his work contains a surprising paucity of reference to other research. Barthes notes that an …