Studium and Punctum

(Werner Branz)

Branz's photo of this row of tulips was an immediately obvious example of studium to me -- I find the subject matter generally pleasing, and there are a number of lines that I find beautiful, but no one line or shape or detail draws my attention more than any other.

(Michele Clement)

This photograph interests me because it's not something that I initially expected to think of as an example of studium. During my first glance at it, my eye went immediately to the white of the church's front wall, and I thought that that would wind up being a point that held my interest. However, the more I look at it, the more I find that I'm just as drawn to the deep deep blacks of the shadows and the grays of the exposed grass as I am to the brilliant white of the building. I feel more interested in the depiction of a range of shades than in any individual shade, more gently caught up in the image as a whole than powerfully struck by any one thing.

(Michele Clement)

This photo works as an example of punctum and studium combined for me. I'm interested in the image's broad subject and the general way the shapes of the two sea-horses play off of each other. At the same time, though, I find myself constantly drawn to the way the tip of the paler sea-horse's tail curls and to how tiny and fine its point is, even in comparison to the other sea-horse's tail-tip.

(artist unknown)

For me, it's not the boy's face hovering out of the recess that works as the punctum; it's the patch of dry pavement on the sidewalk next to him. I think part of the reason I find it so striking is that its presence can't be explained by anything else within the frame; there's nothing visible that could have kept it from getting as wet as the rest of the sidewalk did.

-- Kate Morley