Robert Mapplethorpe
William Burroughs, 1979
Studium: There is something about this photo that I don't quite get. I am not drawn to any of the objects in a positive way, I feel very impartial to them, hence I feel disconnected from the picture.
William Klein
Smoke and Veil, Paris (Vogue)
Punctum: Looking at this photo, I'm very pleased with it. The reason I enjoy looking at it is because I like the contrast between dark and light and I am immediately drawn to the darkness of her left eye and the smoke below it. I feel that people can be drawn to the intense darkness of the left side of her face, the light on her right side, and her expression is that last to see--yet also very powerful.
-Tali Lekorenos
I love how the light crosses the woman's face the the bottom photo, the shadows create the perfect punctum.
ReplyDeletehonestly i think the concepts of studium and punctum are pretty objective. Their definition is entirely dependent of viewers' conception of "interesting" or "boring". I would say the first one is not that bad though. i mean it is boring, but there is sort of conversation going on between the person and the machine, and the line of their shadows.
ReplyDeletewell, this is only my personal opinion, what i wanna say is that the concepts of studium and punctum are so ambiguous....
the second one is absolutely stunning. the veil and the smoke really create a sense of mestory.
---- kaini zhou
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ReplyDeleteI agree with your photo choices. There are so many things going on in the second photo that it is very easy to have people seeing different punctums. For me, I was drawn to the cigarette and her nails.
ReplyDelete- Sara B
I think that both of these certainly do have a punctum to them. But like Kaini said, the idea of studium and punctum are in the eyes of the viewer.
ReplyDeleteAnd that comment above was me, Eliza, I forgot my name. Sorry!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness Sara, I didn't even notice her nails. good find!
ReplyDelete-Tali