Fotografia e desiderio

Photography is undoubtedly one of the areas in which semiotic thought has had the greatest influence. Perhaps the greatest ever. The reference is, of course, to Roland Barthes' The Clear Room, probably the most cited book on semiotics outside that field that has ever been written. The effect of Barthes' book, however, was that everything had been said. Everything that photographers needed to hear, that enthusiasts asked for, that viewers might want to know. The only ones who were not satisfied were precisely the semiologists. Those who, knowing the possibilities of the discipline they practiced, and seeing in photography a multifaceted and fascinating object of meaning, felt that reducing it to a "mere" sign was inadequate. Hence the need to retrace our steps to explicate new and different possibilities and pertinences.