From the observation of photographs - whose motto is his own mourning - he discovers in photography the inexorable manifestation of the real: 'all photography is a certificate of presence'. He now explores deeply the manifestations of his desire, using all that he had uncovered in the first part. In the second half of the book we see Barthes deepening his analysis while making a tribute to his recently deceased mother. He compares it to the theater over painting: 'Photo is like a primitive theater, like a living painting, the figuration of the still and painted face under which we see the dead'. It establishes an interesting analogy between Photography and Death, defending that the photo metamorphoses the being into object.

The author argues that photography, unlike other arts, is impervious to signs, to the codes of culture and language. Through the creation of a terminology as unpublished as appropriate, it makes clear its process of discovery: it designates as 'Operator' the photographer, names as 'Spectator' the one who sees the image, classifies as 'Spectrum' the photographic referent, adopts the “Studium' for the awakening of interest or indifference and finally recognizes the “Punctum' where, incidentally, there is a specific sensation, the wound, the shock, the detail that establishes a direct and immediate relationship with the one who sees the image.

However, in taking this risk, Barthes manages to carry us with him in his demand, towards the heart of the photograph. The word passion becomes, presumably, the reason for its error since its evaluation is not exempt, it is an investigation conducted excessively based on what the photograph does to him. He himself acknowledges that 'subjectivity reduced to his hedonistic project could not recognize the Universal'. In an initial approach, which the author describes as failing at the end of the first part of the book, he makes a merely personal and, I would say, passionate reflection on the subject. Roland Barthes approaches the subject of photography, not through an identification of its different manifestations - the vulgar portrait or landscape characterization, professional or amateur - but rather analyzing the photograph as a whole, designing a method of classification of it, in order to define its essence.

Camera obscura roland barthes