A reflection on the ethics and politics of aesthetics in conflict zone photography through Ilkka Uimonen's Cycles
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12919604 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mia Hannula (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 59-69 |
| Publication date | 2013-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Photographies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1754-0763 • E-ISSN: 1754-0771 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17540763.2013.794997 |
| OpenAlex | W2045156397 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 10 |
This article examines the aesthetics of violence in the context of conflict zone photography by analysing Finnish photojournalist, and former Magnum photographer, Ilkka Uimonen's documentary work Cycles (2004). In part, the series of photographs reiterate imagery that is in the spotlight of transnational mass media and as such it provokes complex reflections that are connected with the epistemological questions on apprehending the ways conflicts are mediated. In pursuance of the experimental execution of the photographs in the exhibition field, the series provides a ground for the critical engagement and reflection on the mass mediated character of violence. The aesthetics of violence gives rise to the social, ethical and political questions of what it is to acknowledge or guard against politically motivated violence. In this context, experimental means are seen as essential in expressing and inquiring complex and emerging knowledge conditions, and may also be transformative. The analysis is focused on the aesthetic means through which the mediation of the conception of intercultural relations can be examined. Experimental documentary photography is seen, here as self-reflective, critical, creative and social practice; documentary practice is investigative in its ways of thinking about what to represent and how in a portrayal of a specific collective and its social relations
Aesthetics · Art · Context (archaeology · Exhibition · Mediation · Pedagogy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Transformative learning · Visual arts · Cinema and Media Studies · History · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Photography and Visual Culture
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |