Slow Photography #64: Mobilize Details for Peak Emotion

"That photo ain't got no punctum*," I told her as we looked at the screen.

"Punk dom, like a kingdom of punks?" she said, looking skeptical.

"No. Punctum." I said, the corners of my mouth sliding upwards.

"Yeah, so what is it?" she asked, smiling.

I paused."It's a point in a photo that pricks you 

in a visceral, non-verbal way, like a haiku."

"Let me explain," I said. "The question is how can you mobilize your photography to create a meaningful image. You want the viewer to look. To do this, we've gotta put meaningful details in the picture."

OK, so what's a punctum? A punctum is a small, poignant detail that commands us to keep looking at the photograph, not because we think the detail adds beauty, but because it disturbs us. Punctum come into a scene, we do not necessarily search them out when photographing. In the final frame, a punctum holds our gaze because it grabs us, and punctures our emotions.

Punctum puncture our emotions in an individual, highly personal way.

Often, we can't describe these details or even give them a name. They escape language, in a way that the best Haiku does. A good indicator of a punctum is an inability to name a personally meaningful detail, although the general idea or concept stays fixed in our mind.

A final note. As we photograph, we don't usually frame a poignant detail with our full conscious attention. Instead, a small detail comes into a changing scene by accident, so an element of chance is one of the aspects of a photographic punctum.




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Links: 

1) *Punctum : Roland Barthes originally coined the term."Punctum is also: sting, speck, cut, little hole – and also the cast of the dice."   

2) More about punctum here: http://www.jameslomax.com/words/275/punctum