In his 1980 book, Camera Lucida, Roland Barthes introduces two concepts for understanding a photograph: studium and punctum. In this article, I would like to explain my personal interpretation of these ideas and how I apply them to my own photography, and street photography in particular. It is not my intention to summarize Barthes’ book. If you’d like a deep understanding of his ideas, I highly recommend reading it!

Think of this article as a personal digest of that material. I emphasize that my ideas here are very much a mutated interpretation of the original. This is intentional! We should all absorb the philosophical understanding we gain from others and make it useful for ourselves, in our own unique contexts. So, I encourage you to do the same upon reading my short piece on the matter, as well as Barthes’ original deep dive.

When we get better at photography, particularly street photography, what is the core skill that we are actually building? Certainly, we need to learn how to use the photographer’s tools: the camera, the lens, lighting, the usage of film or application of digital editing, and so on. And of course, the exact tools of the trade vary. What is crucial for one photographer is useless for another. However, I would argue there is one universal skill that comprises the foundation of photography: perception. The fundamental aspect of what we do is simply put as seeing. It is this ability which we need to learn, to improve, and to sharpen in order to get better at photography.

To be honest, I don’t think it’s so important to classify and quantify what is or isn’t Street Photography with a capital S and a capital P. All that really matters is that you’re out there photographing—exploring the world through your camera’s lens and through your own inner perception. In the past, I’ve spent too much effort making sure my photos are ‘street’ enough. Do I really care if someone else can ‘smell the street’?

But, unfortunately, my mind can’t let it go. I give into the human compulsion of classifying and categorizing things. The taxonomy of photographs is no exception. I can’t help but put my photos into neat little mental boxes, one box for each type.