Denis roche roland barthes biography

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Denis roche roland barthes biography: Photobiographies: pour une écriture de

In this reflection essay, I attempt to relate the autobiography to the photograph, because the autobiography is like the photograph. The autobiography creates an image of authenticity, but it is not reality. There are substantial levels of verisimilitude in the autobiography but it is not life; not real, and this creates the dichotomy between authenticity and reality which is as well inherent in the photograph.

Just like the photograph, the autobiography is rehearsed consciously or unconsciously , it is posed for, it is manipulated, it transits the space of memory and fades with and in time, it is rigid and fixated, which is unlike the life it aspires to imitate that has transitory relationship with time, space and memory. The autobiography encapsulates many metaphors just like the photograph.

There is a consciousness which is multilayered as well fragmented in the autobiography. These multilayered and fragmented forms are mostly designed to fit into an image which is frozen in time and space. Life is never frozen. It is continual, until that moment when the subject slips into the realm of mortality. If a photograph is frozen in time and space, how then does it properly account for a subject that is both plastic and continuous?