Abstract
The photograph is an insecure image. We are often tempted to fill it in by the cultural stereotypes, but even the iconic sign uses to take on the forms of real, it needs to be approached with caution.
This problem is resolved by following Roland Barthes from his first articles on photographs published in the 50s, and by setting out in the territory of semiology that leads to his last work La Chambre claire. In this intentions, it's an exemplary journey, because it covers the thirty successful years of Barthes's semiology : from his imposant theoretical certitudes to his doubts and his final reformation of his previous methods.
Barthes finally leaves his research of the code (photograph is a language) on the benefit of the pure analogy (photograph is an authentication of reality). This radical gesture of the "man of the code" is studied in terms of recalling the paradox, "double language" of the photograph.