theory

Punctum is an object or image that jumps out at the viewer within a photograph- ‘that accident which pricks, bruises me.’ Punctum can exist alongside studium, but disturbs it, creating an ‘element which rises from the scene’ and unitentially fills the whole image. Punctum is the rare detail that attracts you to an image, Barthes says ‘its mere presense changes my reading, that I am looking at a new photograph, marked in my eyes with a higher value.’

Clearly this second element is much more powerful and compelling to the spectator, changing the ‘like’ of studium to the love of an image. As a photographer an understanding of punctum could potentially allow me to make stronger images, although I feel that punctum needs that accidental quality about it to be most effective because it is so personal and could be different for everyone. Basically it could be anything, something that reminds you of your childhood, a sense of deja vu, an object of sentimental value, punctum is very personal and often different for everyone.

And so i wondered, can punctum also occur on purpose?
We are all individuals with different perceptions coming from the different paths we have walked and situations we have been in. Therefor we can never plan punctum because it is different for everyone. On the other side, if punctum is different for everyone, where does a small detail stops being small? Can it also be something else that trigger this? And if so, is it still punctum?

When I looked at photographs that contain punctum for me, I realized that most of them had to do with my early childhood. Memories about Portugal and my grandma. Some also contained feelings from a later stadium. If I want to create photos that will trigger a punctum (to me), I need to focus on feelings and memories and see when these memories are in a photo, if they actually contain punctum.

With great confidence I chose the subject Portugal to narrow it down for a bit and make it more specific. Finding spots or objects in the Netherlands that awaken that feeling is hard, but not impossible. I have had flashbacks about Portugal in real life, so there is definitely a way. This also made me think of the question, if you photograph something that gives someone a flashback, would this photograph then always contain punctum for this person as well?

I traveled to a building that reminded me of a particular place in Portugal. Mostly at sunset I would sit and see this building when in a park. A certain thing about this building reminded me of that. The red doors, the reflection and position of the sun and the iconic lights that go on when dark. When camping outside of the building for some hours, I took photos trying to contain them all.
Yet I felt after scanning them that i did not succeed. The pictures did not have the result that I would have liked. Even when trying to put artificial punctum in them, studium seemed to be lost. I did not like the pictures and maybe because of that, i did not feel punctum when looking at them.

With the photo serie at Foto van der Graaf, I was still looking for Portugal Punctums and it resulted in these 3 photo's that triggered a feeling to Portugal.
On photo 1, you see a tunnel where the tiles and the reflections on them reminded me of the subway in Oeiras. When I look at this photo it still does remind me of that and takes me back to that memory.
On photo 2, you see the garden from the garden of Eli's neighbours. The parasol has always reminded me of , every time I visited him. Ola icecream is sold everywhere on the beaches and the parasols on the beach beside our house always had similair marketing on them. At this specific day the neighbors had a bunch of peppers and kale on the table. When seeying this I caught myself seeing my grandma cutting the peppers on the porch on a sunny day.
And last photo 3, this was a pleasant surprise and right in front of Stijn's house. The suitcase reminded me of a time in portugal that my suitcase broke and I wanted a similair suitcase pretty bad. Ofcourse i could not have it and got a black one instead.

I am not Barthes and therefor sometimes confused and filled with questions about punctum. Most likely Barthes will laugh at me if he could have read this. But for me this is a way to look how far you can go with punctum and when it stops being punctum. When i look at the last 3 photographs, I see and feel memories. Even though I get a hunch that this would not fit punctum for Barthes.