This chapter focuses on an essay by French philosopher and cultural theorist Roland Barthes. His book from 1980 attempts to answer the question: What is the essence of photography? It is also an attempt to think beyond structuralism and semiotics, which were previously important to him. The media-ontological approach of Barthes’s essay is also relevant in relation to other media, and opens a range of important questions in media studies. Moreover, his book is still useful for thinking about the role and importance of photography in our digital age. It demonstrates the limitations of structuralist semiotics and highlights the importance of affect and personal life experience in the process of meaning-making.