As I write my Camera Lucida post, now at a jaw dropping 2600 words, I have dozens of ideas about how to apply Barthes’ theory to pop culture and art. For example, Pictures of You by The Cure captures the essence of Barthes’ ideas beautifully.
In 1988, Robert Smith said this in an interview with Melody Maker, a magazine in the UK:
Pictures Of You was inspired by a fire that broke out in my home. Looking through the remains, I found an old wallet containing pictures of Mary. The song is really about the realization that looking at a photo of someone you love isn’t the same as being with them. It captures a moment that is gone forever, and it brings a sad sense of loss because that person in the photograph doesn’t actually exist anymore.
Although Mary had not died in the literal sense, her photographs still brought an aching and a loss because she was no longer the person in the pictures. Barthes would tell Smith that photographers are the “agents of death,”and they place “corsets” on his “imaginary essence,” and they would probably get along swimmingly.
Cheers,
M. Chaplin