Overview

Ever since the landmark publication of Susan Sontag's On Photography, it has been impossible to look at photographs, particularly those of violence and suffering, without questioning our role as photographic voyeur. Are we desensitized by the proliferation of these images? Or do the images stir our own sense of justice and act as a call to arms? Are we consuming the suffering of others?What should our responses to these images be? To answer these questions, Picturing Atrocity brings together essays from some of the foremost writers on photography today.

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9781861898722

Table of Contents

Reviews

It is hard to look: My Lai, Dachau, Abu Ghraib, Wounded Knee. We know these atrocities through the painful evidence of unforgettable documentary photographs. But these images are far from innocent. Just as 'atrocity' itself is a loaded term, every photograph of such an event is a bit of high-level propaganda in a moralized political argument, encouraging the viewer to bear witness, make judgments, take sides. This important new collection of essays by some of the most brilliant analysts of photography shows how deliberately horrifying pictures have shaped--and continue to shape--the ethics and politics of the modern era. <br><br>--Brian Wallis, Chief Curator, International Center of Photography, New York Brian Wallace, International Center of Photography

For all the monographic studies and collected volumes, however, even those devoted specifically to photography, none has explored the terrain as expansively or assiduously as Picturing Atrocity . . . an ambitious and important book, each essay offering an illuminating encounter with a fragment of the photographic archive of injustice and suffering . . . As much an encounter with the history of modernity as it is with the medium of photography, Picturing Atrocity is a deeply ethical study of images . . .this volume, with its concise yet purposeful introduction by Jay Prosser and its consistently persuasive and engaging essays by the other editors and contributors, makes a case for why photography, whatever its forms, mattered then, matters now, and will continue to matter in the years to come. * <i>CAA Reviews</i> * By closely reading both iconic images and banal photographs of crises within their context, the various contributors show readers how to be critical of what is seen and unseen . . . These vivid, lucid essays make an invaluable contribution to the history of photography and provide a model for active looking and critical engagement. Highly recommended. * <i>Choice</i> * there are some subtle and effective examinations of the space where art and horror meet, and what&#39s notable throughout is the way the text surrounds the terrible images in an almost Lilliputian attempt to restrain their power. * <i>The Australian</i> * The writers offer fresh understandings and analyses of photographys role in documenting atrocity by considering iconic images, as well as photo-essays by groundbreaking artists . . . . This is an important book, which not only reflects on photography, but also on human injustice and suffering. * <i>Art News</i>, New Zealand * The volume brings together some of the most prominent contemporary writers in the field of photography and visual studies . . . Without pretending to be an anthology of contemporary photography theory or establishing a canon of war and conflict imagery, it provides a cartography of the current issues and debates in the field . . . The books undeniable achievement is the deconstruction of the concept as a clear, demarcated event through the variety of approaches and reactions to the visual * <i>Photography and Culture</i> * It is hard to look: My Lai, Dachau, Abu Ghraib, Wounded Knee. We know these atrocities through the painful evidence of unforgettable documentary photographs. But these images are far from innocent. Just as atrocity itself is a loaded term, every photograph of such an event is a bit of high-level propaganda in a moralized political argument, encouraging the viewer to bear witness, make judgments, take sides. This important new collection of essays by some of the most brilliant analysts of photography shows how deliberately horrifying pictures have shaped and continue to shape the ethics and politics of the modern era. * Brian Wallis, Chief Curator, International Center of Photography * Picturing Atrocity is an excellent examination of the dilemmas implicit in photographys representation of human suffering, whether caused by torture, war, poverty, the political chaos and neglect that multiplies the toll from natural disasters (as in Africas Horn region today), or other gross rights violations. Multi-layered and lucid, these essays demolish any lingering pretence that images of suffering can be understood without also considering the context and media in which they are presented, and the often far-from-the-scene viewer who consumes them. Picturing Atrocity is critical reading for communicators in the aid, development and human rights communities who participate in the dissemination of these essential but volatile images. * Ellen Tolmie, Senior Photography Editor, UNICEF *

Author Information

Geoffrey Batchen (Anthology Editor) Geoffrey Batchen is a photography historian and Professor of Art History at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Mick Gidley (Anthology Editor) Mick Gidley is Emeritus Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of Leeds. He is the author of With One Sky Above Us: Life on an Indian Reservation at the Turn of the Century (1979). Nancy K. Miller (Anthology Editor) Nancy K. Miller is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature, the Graduate Center, CUNY. Jay Prosser (Anthology Editor) Jay Prosser is Reader in Humanities in the School of English at the University of Leeds, UK.

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