Camera Lucida

In a recent talk with artist Andy Holden he turned me onto the book 'Camera Lucida' by Roland Barthes. This turned out to be a perfect recommendation on his part as not only does it inform my work but it also informs my essay. It's given a lot of my stray thoughts and feelings about photography a gravity point and beginning. It's helped me to understand my relationship with found images which has become a recurring theme throughout my work recently.

The book examines the themes of presence and absence, the relationship between photography and theatre, history and death; these 'reflections on photography' begin as an investigation into the nature of photographs. Then as Barthes contemplates a photograph of his mother as a child, the book becomes an exposition of his own mind.