Presentation of the book Ça-a-été? Contra Barthes, an essay by Joan Fontcuberta published by Joaquín Gallego Editor. With Andrés Hispano, a specialist in visual culture, Joan Fontcuberta, the author of the book, Cuauhtémoc Medina, a curator of contemporary art (by video-conference), and Valentín Roma, director of  La Virreina Centre de la Imatge.

Roland Barthes states in Camera Lucida. Reflections on Photography: “For me, the Photographer's organ is not his eye (which terrifies me) but his finger: what is linked to the trigger of the lens, to the metallic shifting of the plates (when the camera still has such things)”. But above all, the pointing finger illustrates the basic principle of the photograph. Every photograph, in the words of Barthes, is a pointing gesture that testifies "this-has-been" (Ça-a-été).

This book represents the culmination of the exhibition project of the same title, currently presented in the Sala Miserachs of La Virreina Centre de la Imatge, which presents the photographic archive of the Mexican sensationalist magazine Alerta as a case study. In his essay Fontcuberta makes a series of reflections that pay homage to Barthesian thought but also desacralize it in an attempt to bring it up to date with the current post-photographic visual order.