Roland Barthes – The Photographic Message

Roland Barthes 1915 – 1980

There are a few key theorists in photography:

• Charles S. Pierce – 1839 – 1914 (Semiotic analysis of images and non-verbal signs supported by his work)
• Ferdinand De Saussure – 1857 – 1913 (Defined the linguistic sign as two sided formed by a signifier and signified.
• Roland Barthes – 1857 – 1913 (Semiotic analysis of the media. Denotation, connotation, myth: Societal construction of the seeming “natural” in society)

 

Roland Barthes was a French literary theorist and writer. He has written some very key text on photography and how interpretation in photography shows meaning in a photograph.

Barthe based his writing and theories on Semiotics. Semiotics was a theory that was developed in order to understand how language works. Semiotics ask many questions such as how do we use language to communicate? What is the relationship between the words we use and the real things in the world that we are referring to?

 Semiotics as a work comes from the Greek word ‘Semeion’ meaning “Sign”.

The idea behind semiotics is that it guides and helps people to figure out and analyse the meanings of something, in this case photography and look at the signs which communicate this meaning. The idea that ‘signs’ can be anything from words, pictures or symbols.

Semiotics is something that reveals the hidden nature of verbal and visual communication. It opens up our imagination to fill in the gaps and sort misunderstandings in human communication. A message must be understandable to allow the audience to understand what they are look at. There is an idea that the audience will always try to link to something through personal experience, this I know to be true simply because I have done this myself on many an occasion.

There are many aspects of semiotics:

1. The sign itself (image/word)  – There are man ways in which a sign can convey a meaning.
2. The codes or systems into which signs are organised (language) – There are a variety of codes that have been developed to meet the needs of a society or culture.
3. The culture within which these codes and signs operate – The use of these codes and signs for the existence, form and extension of a culture.

Barthe had the idea and argued that the distinction between a message and code is problematic when it involves photography, due to the special nature of the image. The message is a singular, meaningful nit of discourse. The code is an abstraction created by the reader, a logic reconstructed from the materials provided by the message.

 

Charles S. Peirce had the idea that there where three main parts that gave a symbol a meaning:

• Icon
  • An Icon signifies its resemblance or its analogical relation to what it wishes to represent.
  • The icon is the simplest sign as it is a pattern that physically resembles what it ‘stands for’.
• Symbol
  • A symbol does not resemble what it refers to – it signifies through the force of convention (language)
  • For example: The word ‘Apple’ or the word ‘Dog’
•  Index
  • The index signifies the relationship with its referent, often defined by some sensory feature (visual, audible etc)

 

Ferdinand De Saussure had the idea of the signifier and the signifies. He defined a sign as being composed of them both:

• A ‘signifier’ – the form which the sign takes.
• The ‘signified’ – the concept it represents.
  • This can be presented through the word ‘Open’ in a sign. This consists of the signifier being the word ‘Open’ and the signified concept being that the shop is open for business.

 

There is a relation between signifier and signified can be defined by convention and signification in socially, historically and constructed.

 

There is a paradox in photography as it can contain two messages. The message without a code (the Denotation) and the message with a code (the Connotation). The understanding of denotation and connotation:

• Denotation
  • What is literally depicted by the photograph
  • The elements in the image which communicate facts
• Connotation
  • What is suggested by the depiction to the viewer
  • Extra associations specific to culture or knowledge of context of the image
• Forms of connotation
  • Perceptive connotation
    • The photograph is verbalised at the moment it is perceived
  • Cognitive connotation
    • Factual elements of the image are picked out or understood because of the viewers knowledge
  • Ideological and ethical connotation
    • The elements that convey the strongest and most complex message
• Other forms of connotation
  • Pose – The position of a figure which itself contains messages from culture, history, literature, paintings etc.
  • Objects – these are the signifiers and associates with ideas in culture. The arrangement or selection of objects creates a connotation in the photograph.
  • Aestheticism – Photographs which compositionally emulate paintings or other culturally known images.
  • Trick effects – The disruption of the credibility of the photograph as an analogue of reality by creating a false simulation.
  •  Photogenia – An informational structure to the technology of photographic production through which certain effects create connotations in the photograph.
  • Syntax – the connotation created by viewing a sequence of images and which emerges from the photographs in relation to each other rather than singly.

In advertising there are many messages an image can have:

1. The linguistic message
   • The words and text used to accompany images
2. Non-coded Iconic message
   • The ‘literal message’ or ‘denotation’ of the image
3. Coded Iconic Message
   • The ‘symbolic message’ or ‘connotation’ of the image

 

I have learnt loads through this lecture as I feel that it has explained everything I needed to know about connotation and denotation and all the ideas behind a messaging in an image. This is something that I will be keeping in minds through out all of the image that I will b creating. I like the idea that so much can be taken from an image, I find that each and every message will be different to others compaired to me or the person next to you as you look upon the same image. I think that messages in images are what make the connect to people, meaning they can all connect to the same images in completely different ways.