# Against Barthes: The Eye and the Index

- **Brand:** MACK
- **Price:** $20.00
- **Catalog:** mackbooks
- **Retailer:** mackbooks
- **Product URL:** https://go.cosimo.shop/r/gAAAAABqz2GA8PBUrjljfPw9a_khIjosk3_6OGZEi74BCvEiC-Mgar5CVUGBaWuMqtTrt-aUzYGnmOtAhe12QWX-OebsyaSQDZ-7HYyYDVWsyhpokbkxYpGHf8GuoIjHVVIJRlHergJ8h6g9sabtjtCahV3iR7FIanYG6UpE3ZsIrSclcj0U3tPcjOLjmXeQKOYp1lQdQAI2ZhMYsP-cqPS_ouz9PdMxT22RY0elYshkl_PdfNoboq8VXKl5saPDgK1LpnmR_59jnedwNdAdeBIZqxd6w6-E1CNqEwByUgnP4oYnPeLeTb7mLNK_Uiz3KsK9YWX7c57oNnxBewfyGMOdQuIw-lQj-rlehmjoj8fcZG-tAzSiBuI6T5iMB6zPDdbMnxMVNlebjC2_y2AdJZK0yoYjvnBiGFDBCNjlfLuw_bpe2vl-24wKCH5QMOw3k4alSf8Tzq7zQ3N3sN7HyU8DvxCeDjJciICWaZ69fmqQNduJqlxaXWk=
- **Availability:** Out of stock

## Summary

Against Barthes: The Eye and the Index by Joan Fontcuberta, a paperback art theory book and visual essay featuring a red and black cover with a portrait photograph.

## Description

The gesture of pointing is the perfect embodiment of photography’s function as a visual document: an injunction to look at this. In this textual and visual essay, artist Joan Fontcuberta takes the index finger as his point of departure for an insightful and irreverent consideration of photography’s relation to indexicality. He refutes, as well as draws on, Roland Barthes’s suggestion that every photograph tells us ‘this has been’ (‘ça a été’), reckoning with the inconvenient multiplicity of thises in any given image. If a photograph constitutes such a statement – as made explicit in images that include a pointing finger – does the camera witness reality or performance? These existential issues are further complicated by the emergence of post-photography and generative AI.   In this typically engaging and iconoclastic essay, Fontcuberta destabilises our ideas about the authority and authoriality of images, drawing on psychoanalysis, semiotics, and his own autobiography. His text is interleaved between two compelling visual essays formed of images from the archive of Mexican tabloid Alerta from the 1960s to 1980s, in which the pointing index finger forms a haunting and often humorous through-line.   DISCOURSE is a series of small books in which a theorist, artist, or writer engages in a dialogue with a theme, an artwork, an idea, or another individual across an extended text. Explore the full series here.

## Variants

- **In stock:** 0 of 1

| SKU | Availability |
| --- | --- |
| 9781915743930 | Out of stock |

## Categories

- **Categories:** Art Theory Books

## Additional Attributes

- **ISBN:** 978-1-915743-93-0
- **tags:** Joan Fontcuberta, transfer
- **pages:** 208 pages
- **author:** Joan Fontcuberta
- **format:** Paperback with flaps
- **vendor:** MACK
- **binding:** Paperback with flaps
- **publisher:** MACK
- **dimensions:** 12.5 x 19.5 cm
- **page count:** 208 pages
- **product type:** Art Theory Books
- **listed prices:** €17 £14 US$20 AU$30
- **shopify handle:** against-barthes-the-eye-and-the-index-joan-fontcuberta
- **publication date:** April 2025
- **dimensions and pages:** 12.5 x 19.5 cm, 208 pages

## Enrichment

- **Type:** book
- **Type Synonyms:** art theory book, textual essay, publication
- **Tags:** paperback, cover art, portrait photography, text-heavy cover
- **Styles:** academic, minimalist
- **Category Path:** Media > Books > Print Books
- **Book cover type:** Paperback
- **Genre:** Arts, Design, Philosophy
- **Language version:** ENG- English
- **Target audience:** Adults
- **Canonical Brand:** MACK

## Images

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*Source: cosimo.shop | Product ID: ba866d3b-fca8-5b94-869b-4fe73f38b4e8 | Canonical URL: https://cosimo.shop/product/mack/against-barthes-the-eye-and-the-index-e34d8af5-7062-4444-b8a5-12f6f5855c2d*