February 2025

The new project on February 20th at the “Fourth Wall” Gallery in Berlin explores the term “punctum,” as defined by the French philosopher Roland Barthes in his book Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. Barthes described the photograph as “the living image of a dead thing,” a quality it shared with painting, which, as seen in ancient Egyptian funerary objects, originated in portraits of the dead. However, Barthes argued that what set the photograph apart was its punctum—the sensory, deeply subjective impact it has on the viewer. He defined the punctum as “that accident which pricks me (but also bruises me, is poignant to me).” Over the years, many writers have explored and debated the significance of the punctum in photography theory, but no consensus has been reached. Thus, it is open to much interpretation.