Life, Love and Death: The work of Adam Fuss Essay -- essays research p

Life, Love and Death: The work of Adam Fuss Peanut butter and jelly, a common combination of two separate entities, most people have heard of this duo, many enjoy it, but only one manufacturer packaged them together in a handy snack. Much like the tasty treat that is Goobers is the tasty duo of Adam Fuss and Roland Barthes. Two separate men, Adam Fuss and Roland Barthes put together in one reading, complementing and accentuating each other. Fuss and Barthes, they share an interest in photography, they share an interest in the foundation and principles of photography, more over they share an interest in photography that is deeply personal. Fuss takes the camera out of photography. Barthes takes photography out of art. Both men want to get to the essence of what a photograph is, one by thinking and writing about it and one by doing it. In this paper I will show how Adam Fuss’ work matches up with and demonstrates the ideas of Barthes’ in Camera Lucida. I will look at one body of work at a time and show which parts of Barthes’ ideas are present in the work, in its creation and its theory. I will start with his first professional body of work, move through to his most recent work and then look back to some of his childhood pictures. Whether Barthes' ideas actually influenced Fuss’ work I am not sure of, I have not found any text or interview that leads me to believe that it is, however I would not be surprised if it has. Camera Lucida was Roland Barthes’ last written piece, published posthumously in 1980. This book deals with the topic of photography and the death of Barthes’ mother in 1977. The role of photography is questioned; he asks what about photography makes it a valid media? We read about the operator (the photographer), spectrum (the subject) and spectator (the viewer), also about the studium (what we see in the photograph) and the punctum (the unclassifiable, the thing that makes the photograph important to the viewer). According to Barthes the photograph is an adventure for the viewer, but it is ultimately death, the recording of something that will be dead after the picture is taken. This idea is the main focus of Barthes’ writing, the photograph â€Å"that-has-been†, in Latin â€Å"interfuit: what I see has been here, in this place which extends between infinity and the subject; it has been here, and yet immediately separated; it has been absolutely, irref.. . ...warns us about, by using it to document ideas and cause and effect. Barthes also warns us about color, but Fuss uses color judiciously and naturally in his work. Whether Barthes' ideas actually influenced Fuss’ work I am not sure of, however the similarities and differences between both men’s work suggest that Fuss has indeed been either directly or indirectly influenced by Roland Barthes’ Camera Obscura. Bibliography Allen, G. (2003). Roland Barthes. London: Routledge. Barthes, R. (1981). Camera lucida: Reflections on photograph (R. Howard, Trans.). New York: Hill and Wang. (Original work published 1980) Bleckner, R. (1992). Adam Fuss. In Betsy Sussler (Ed.), Bomb speak art!: The best of Bomb magazine’s interviews with artists (pp. 98-106). Australia: G+B Arts International. Crump, J. (1997). Visceral photography: The work of Adam Fuss. Afterimage, 25(1). Retrieved on 10/11/2004 from EBSCOhost database. Fuss, A. (1997). Adam Fuss: Essay by Eugenia Parry. Santa Fe, NM: Arena Editions. Kellein, T. (2003). Adam Fuss. New York: Distributed Art Publishers, Inc. Sand, M. (1993). Adam Fuss. In Aperture: On location (pp. 44-53). New York: Aperture Foundation, Inc.