Choose a photographer from the list below, someone whose work appeals to you, arrests you, holds your attention. In order to make your choice, do some image searching, or even check out a book or two on photography from the library. Familiarize yourself with the style, subject matter, and the artistic preoccupations of a few of these photographers. When you have made your choice, pick a single image from your chosen photographer’s oeuvre (body of work). This should be not just any photograph, but one that grabs you and holds your attention: one that, to borrow from Barthes, “animates” you, perhaps even pierces or “wounds” you. In other words, choose a photograph that has a punctum.

Note: Remember that the punctum is partly subjective—it is located in your own idiosyncratic experience of viewing the picture—but that it is also very much in the photograph. Barthes defines this term in multiple ways, but he is clear that, in most cases, it is a detail within the photograph itself.

When you have chosen your photograph, post a (large, high quality) image of it to the blog. Include the title (if any), the photographer’s name and dates (of birth and, if applicable, of death), and the year the photo was taken. In a post of 400-450 words, give an account of both the photograph’s studium and of its punctum. If you need help defining these terms, turn back to Camera Lucida and to your notes from our class discussion. Be sure to select the category “Blog Post 3.”

Photographers (in alphabetical order by last name)*

Shirley Baker

Dawoud Bey

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Martha Cooper

Robert Doisneau

Elliott Erwitt

Walker Evans

Jill Freedman

Harness Hamese

André Kertész

Helen Levitt

Vivian Maier

Dmitry Markov

Susan Meiselas

Daido Moriyama

Musa N. Nxumalo

Alexander Petrosyan

Malick Sidibé

W. Eugene Smith

Daniele Tamagni

Gary Winograd

*If there is a specific photographer whose name does not appear here whose work you’d like to analyze, email me for permission. The photographers I’ve chosen all practice urban street photography (though this is not what all of them focused on all of the time), which feeds into our next unit directly. That said, I have no desire to be unnecessarily restrictive, here.