In his book Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography, Roland Barthes (1915-1980) examines photography, both in its materiality and in the gaze it provokes. In Barthes' reflection, absence plays a decisive role. First, through the concept of the "return of the dead" in every photograph; then through the absence of the photograph of Barthes' mother in the book to whom he comes back to predominately in the second half of the essay. Finally, through the disappearance of the referent (the death of Barthes' mother).
After reading Barthes' book and having experienced grief myself, I wanted to express the experience of mourning through a photographic object while reflecting on photography ontologically. This artist's book begins with a reflection on how death permeates every photograph.
"The Winter Garden”, the title Barthes gives to the absent photo of his mother, is composed of old photographic papers in the format used for old portraits, unexposed, undeveloped, and unfixed. It functions as a photo album documenting the disappearance of the photographic referent.
As Barthes puts it: “The photograph is literally an emanation of the referent. From a real body, which was there, proceed radiations which ultimately touch me, who am here; the duration of the transmission is insignificant”.
Thus, although the referent is no longer present, a void emanates from the photographic paper. However, every time the artist's book is opened, flipped through, or left open, light interacts with the chemical products of the photographic paper, causing a change in colour depending on the duration of exposure; thus leaving a trace of the absent/ce.