Images and the regulation of affection: vulnerability and witnessing
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4013/fem.2019.212.04Abstract
The aim of this work is to reflect on the compassionate appeal, political power and testimonial dimension of the photographs of the Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi, made by the Turkish photographer Nilüfer Demir in September of 2015, in the beach of Ali Hoca, in Bodrum, Turkey. At first, these photographs are distinguished in the wake of the so-called “trauma images”, or hyperimagens. Next, we argue that these images seems marked by the ostensible and expressive presence of children as suffering subjects in the visual construction of compassionate appeals. It is argued, then, about the capacity that images of the Syrian boy have to communicate the precariousness of certain lives. Finally, we analyze the photograph in light of the political potential of the witnessing and the very meaning of photography as rest.
Keywords: Image. Affection. Vulnerability. Witnessing.
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