Roland Barthes in his Camera Lucida famously introduced the concept punctum in opposition with studium. Studium refers to the manifest content of the photograph that is responsible for creating interest in the image, and we may be interested in the subject of photographs for all sorts of reasons. However, it is only images with punctum that capture our attention for the sake of their formal photographic qualities, regardless of their depicted content. It is a detail of the image that sharply captures our attention, attracts us to the photograph and makes it stand out of the thousands of other photographs we encounter. It is a formalist condition, and discovering the presence of punctum in an image depends on the searching eye of the spectator. Thus punctum is regarded as a highly subjective notion by many, while others may argue that there could be objective ways of demonstrating the presence of punctum in some works. It is likely among the most challenging tasks for a photographer to create images with punctum, but this is precisely what we are looking for in this exhibition.

PH21 Gallery invites photographers to submit their work for a group exhibition themed Punctum. We are looking for submissions from all photographers who are interested in this topic and would like to share their work with a wider international audience through the exposure of PH21 Gallery. The topic is broadly construed, as the presence of punctum is independent of generic or stylistic constraints.