I find Roland Barthes' "Camera Lucida" to be an irrelevant, confusing, extremely frustrating text that is just impossible to get into. I do not have the patience for his writing style and I really just don't like this book. The man also doesn't like film, which is his opinion but that automatically makes me scratch my head and be less open to his ideas and his writing.
That's not to say that the book is a complete waste of time, the man is very smart and at times has some really interesting insight, but it feels like a lot of the time he's just all over the place in his descriptions and most of the time, he's just a really hard to follow guy.
I did find a couple of interesting things in the book, but one quote specifically stuck out to me and made me think of the picture above that I posted.
"Whatever it grants to vision and whatever its manner, a photograph is always invisible: it is not it that we see."
The picture above is from the cover box art to the game, "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots", which happens to be one my favorite games of all time. MGS4 is the final chapter in the "Metal Gear" saga and concludes the story of series hero, Solid Snake as he embarks on his final mission to defeat his nemesis, Liquid Ocelot who is hellbent on world domination, and controls most of the world's military.
The story follows Snake who is has grown substantially older due to a rapid aging disease that he has. This disease is inhibiting Snake's abilities and is cutting into his life. He knows he is going to die soon, and accepts this mission with reluctance, but realizes that he is the only one who can stop Liquid.
The game itself is a masterpiece in gameplay and in storytelling, but that really isn't what I want to focus on here, nor is it relevant to the assignment.
This picture in so many words just captures Snake completely. You can see in that blue eye of his, all the battles he has fought, all the villains he has killed and just the psychological damage this has done to him. He's a character that has been through so much and just sacrifices himself, especially in this chapter of the series for the greater good of the world.
But to just the normal person who was to look at this, someone who doesn't have an emotional connection with this character, just this sullen look in his eye, this deep sadness he feels over not only his own impending death, but just the loneliness over his life really should just jump out to them. He's a man who has always depended on himself and never let anyone into his life. Because of this, he has never really experienced too many real human connections. And even the few friends he does have, he never fully lets into his life making him even more isolated from everyone and everything. I really get the sense of this more than ever of Snake's sadness and loneliness he feels on a daily basis through the cover of MGS4, and it really touches you and makes you feel a connection with Snake.
The way Snake is treated in the game as a character, and just throughout all the games is great. He goes through a lot of emotional changes, he loses and gains friends, he fights real and human enemies that you as a player can sympathize with and just the overall experience of the Metal Gear Solid games makes you feel like you are Snake, and it is through all of these experiences that you really love this character.
But that look just embodies Snake and gets the player emotionally ready to go on that journey with Snake, as Snake. That look, that look to me just captures what the character feels so much at this point in his life, and to me it's something that I can look at and just admire, not only because it has such a deep emotional meaning, but the craftsmanship of the art is just beautiful. I also think that the cliched statement of, "A picture says a thousand words" is actually true here. Through this picture of Snake, you can really get a sense of who he is and how he feels. And I feel that regardless of if a work is a painting or a photograph, that you should get a sense of how the subject being portrayed feels. And I think that this picture of Snake does exactly that.
"Ultimately Photography is subversive not when it frightens, repels, or even stigmatizes, but when it is pensive, when it thinks."
-Roland Barthes
Barthes actually does have a really good point about the comparisons of art to photography. He feels like the first person who saw a photograph probably thought it was a painting because he feels that photography is and always will be in painting's shadow. I kind of feel the same way here. This art work here, is in fact a piece of art, but it looks so realistic to the point that to me, from my point of view it is more of a photograph. A snap shot of a character that encompasses every fiber in his being and brings him so to life that it is just absolutely insane in the sense of the feelings I feel from this picture of Snake.
Photographs and paintings go hand in hand in many ways, but I feel like the best photographs, the best paintings trigger some sort of emotional reaction out of me. Not only does this photograph/painting do this, but I think if this was hung at an art exhibit a lot of people would be mesmerized by the detail and emotions that Snake shows. And an emotional connection to anything will make anyone out there feel good about themselves. And that's a reason I always come back to things in my life that I really care about, because they make me feel good about myself, and that is and always will be a very, very good thing.
To give you just an idea of what Solid Snake goes through in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, here is the opening cut scene from the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKpd7i8nwEw is a better way to watch it, and I recommend watching it on youtube in high quality, but the video is here in its smaller form here below. I think that if you watch it, you'll get a sense of the emotional power the source material comes from and you'll get a better sense of the character of Solid Snake.
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