CAMERA LUCIDA - Reflections on Photography (First UK edition - first impression)
Roland Barthes (Translated from the French by Richard Howard)
Language: English
Published by Jonathan Cape, London, 1982
- First Edition
- Hardcover
- Used
Seller: Orlando Booksellers, Lincoln, United KingdomOrlando Booksellers
AbeBooks seller since January 11, 2000
Condition: Used - Very good
£ 125.00
Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
First impression of the first UK edition, published in 1982. The book was originally published in this translation in the USA by Hill and Wang in June 1981. Illustrated with black & white photographs throughout the text, and with a colour frontispiece: "Polaroid" by Daniel Boudinet. ***Near fine in black textured paper over white cloth-covered boards with gilt titles and gilt block to the spine, and gilt titles and gilt block to the front board. The boards are relatively clean and unmarked, and the gilt blocks are undamaged. No bumps or creases. Page block edges clean - just lightly foxed, mainly to the top edge. No reading lean to the binding. Spine tight. Internally very good, with some rubbed out pencil marks to the top of the front free endpaper. There are also some light pencil notes and lines in the margins - these have been left but could be rubbed out if so wished (please see scans). No foxing. Paper stock white and clean. No creases or tears. ***In a very good colour printed dustwrapper, which has been corner price-clipped to the front flap. The dustwrapper is complete, with just light rubbing to the edges. No chips, creases or tears. No fading to the spine colours. Dustwrapper bright and clean. ***214mm x 143mm. 119 pages. Roland Gérard Barthes (12 Nov 1915 - 26 Mar 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popular culture. His ideas explored a diverse range of fields, including structuralism, anthropology, literary theory, and post-structuralism, and influenced the development of multiple schools of theory. Barthes is particularly notable for his 1957 essay collection "Mythologies", which contained reflections on popular culture, and the 1967/1968 essay "The Death of the Author", which critiqued traditional approaches in literary criticism. Throughout his career, Barthes had an interest in photography and its potential to communicate actual events. A number of his monthly myth articles in the 1950s had attempted to show how a photographic image could represent implied meanings and thus be used by bourgeois culture to infer 'naturalistic truths'. But he still considered the photograph to have a unique potential for presenting a completely real representation of the world. When his mother, Henriette Barthes, died in 1977 he began writing Camera Lucida as an attempt to explain the unique significance a picture of her as a child carried for him. Reflecting on the relationship between the obvious symbolic meaning of a photograph (which he called the studium) and that which is purely personal and dependent on the individual, that which 'pierces the viewer' (which he called the punctum), Barthes was troubled by the fact that such distinctions collapse when personal significance is communicated to others and can have its symbolic logic rationalized. Barthes found the solution to this fine line of personal meaning in the form of his mother's picture. Barthes explained that a picture creates a falseness in the illusion of 'what is', where 'what was' would be a more accurate description. As had been made physical through Henriette Barthes's death, her childhood photograph is evidence of 'what has ceased to be'. Instead of making reality solid, it serves as a reminder of the world's ever changing nature.' (Wiki) ***First impression of the first UK edition, translated into English by Richard Howard, in its original dustwrapper in very good to near fine condition. The first UK edition is surprisingly uncommon and desirable. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.…
Seller Inventory # 9644
- Title
- CAMERA LUCIDA - Reflections on Photography (First UK edition - first impression)
- Author
- Roland Barthes (Translated from the French by Richard Howard)
- Publisher
- Jonathan Cape, London
- Publication year
- 1982
- Condition
- Very Good
- Dust jacket
- Very Good
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 0224029290
- ISBN 13
- 9780224029292
- Illustrator
- Charles Skaggs (Jacket design)
- Edition
- First UK Edition
- Printing
- First Impression
- Seller catalogs
- First Editions, Literature in Translation
A graceful, contemplative volume, Camera Lucida was first published in 1979. Commenting on artists such as Avedon, Clifford, Mapplethorpe, and Nadar, Roland Barthes presents photography as being outside the codes of language or culture, acting on the body as much as on the mind, and rendering death and loss more acutely than any other medium. This groundbreaking approach established Camera Lucida as one of the most important books of theory on the subject, along with Susan Sontag's On Photography.
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review
"[Barthes] has accomplished in this extraordinary book something finer than mere polemic. En route to his last painful discovery, Barthes takes the reader on an exquisitely rendered, lyrical journey into the heart of his own life and the medium he came to love, a medium that flirts constantly with the 'intractable reality' of the human condition." --"Newsweek"
[Barthes] has accomplished in this extraordinary book something finer than mere polemic. En route to his last painful discovery, Barthes takes the reader on an exquisitely rendered, lyrical journey into the heart of his own life and the medium he came to love, a medium that flirts constantly with the intractable reality' of the human condition. "Newsweek""
[Barthes] has accomplished in this extraordinary book something finer than mere polemic. En route to his last painful discovery, Barthes takes the reader on an exquisitely rendered, lyrical journey into the heart of his own life and the medium he came to love, a medium that flirts constantly with the intractable reality' of the human condition. Newsweek"
"[Barthes] has accomplished in this extraordinary book something finer than mere polemic. En route to his last painful discovery, Barthes takes the reader on an exquisitely rendered, lyrical journey into the heart of his own life and the medium he came to love, a medium that flirts constantly with the 'intractable reality' of the human condition." --Newsweek
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Orlando Booksellers
Lincoln, United Kingdom
AbeBooks seller since January 11, 2000
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We specialize in 20th Century literature, and in particular, Modern First Editions. We would be interested in buying such books, whether individual items or collections. We are particularly interested in Bloomsbury writers, Beats & Counter Culture and 20th C photography monographs. Our books can be viewed as a whole on ABE, or by choosing one of a number of catalogues that we have set up for particular interests, such as Crime Fiction & True Crime, Collectable Paperbacks, Children's Literature etc.…
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