Collecting Loss

Carol Mavor, a lecturer at Manchester University, author and all round odd-ball, loves photography. Just read an article written by Mavor called 'Collecting Loss', on female fetishism - in Mavor's case this is the fetishisation of clothing and photography, and the roles both play in narrating the past, and consequently, loss. Its a good article, a little sentimental, but I recommend it. Anyway, as Mavor explains, Roland Barthes the great voice of photography coined the term 'Punctum', meaning the 'inexplainable, but always personalised, sense of being wounded or pierced by a photographic image.' The word seems to fit the meaning perfectly, gonna adopt it.

Lewis Carole, Irene MacDonald, 1863
A much loved photograph by Mavor