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Life, Love and Death: The work of Adam Fuss Essay

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Life, Love and Death: The work of Adam Fuss

Peanut butter and jelly, a common combination of two separate entities, most people have heard of this duo, many enjoy it, but only one manufacturer packaged them together in a handy snack. Much like the tasty treat that is Goobers is the tasty duo of Adam Fuss and Roland Barthes. Two separate men, Adam Fuss and Roland Barthes put together in one reading, complementing and accentuating each other. Fuss and Barthes, they share an interest in photography, they share an interest in the foundation and principles of photography, more over they share an interest in photography that is deeply personal. Fuss takes the camera out of photography. Barthes takes photography out of art. Both men want to get …show more content…

“The Photograph’s essence is to ratify what it represents” (Barthes, 1981, 85). This idea is the foundation upon which Adam Fuss has built his career. From childhood to his most recent works Fuss has created photographs that are statements of being. These photographs do not hide what they are; they are bold in their content, yet subtle in creation and meaning. The theme of life and death is woven into the whole of Adam Fuss’ work, in his earliest childhood photographs, his early pinhole camera prints and his extensive body of photograms. This theme seeps into his work through the method as well as the material, through the studium and the punctum (Barthes, 26).
If the photograph’s essence is to ratify what it represents, then the photogram’s essence is to ratify what it is. The photogram, by its nature is an index of a thing; there is a one to one ratio between the subject and the photogram. There is no way to enlarge or reduce the size of a photogram because each piece is unique, unlike camera and film photography that can be reproduced without end. Fuss’ early photograms, made between 1988 and 1992, deal with water and its movement, rippling water, a few beads, a bucket of water crashing down on the paper surface and the wake of a snake’s movement. Water is not only a symbol of life, but the water in these photograms is in motion, alive in its activity. An

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