Pairing

David Bailey’s book ‘If We Shadows’ places images opposite each other based seemingly on their structure and geometry. This linking through geometrics effects the reading of both images. The above image for example one can’t help but look at both these images as one due to their pairing through the glasses and milk jugs. We can apply Barthes’ theory of the studium and punctum details here. The pairing of the images on this technical level is that which engages the viewer on a basic level, it holds their attention, which is what Barthes’ describes as the studium quality of the image. This is of course if we are to look at the pairing as a whole in itself. It is the technical likenesses then which causes us to then almost without thinking compare them thematically.
This is the point where the narratives of each image converge, causing what Barthes refers to as the punctum quality, ‘that accident which pricks me.’ Barthes refers to single images when he makes these assertions, but as I have mentioned we cannot help but to look at the images in the book as one. This punctum quality has much more of a wounding presence in the above image, due to the humanity in the images.
To pair my images would be to imply a quiet world, not just a series of instances; the implication would be that these scenes were occurring simultaneously.