Distanced suffering

Photographed Suffering and the Construction of White in/Vulnerability

Bibliographic Data

ID8071158
AuthorsAnna Szörényi (0000-0002-2092-5970, The University of Adelaide, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume19
Issue2
Pages93-109
Publication date2009-06-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Semiotics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1035-0330 • E-ISSN: 1470-1219
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10350330902815816
OpenAlexW2144550661
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited22

There has been much debate about the ethics and effectiveness of the circulation of photographs of suffering. An analysis of commentaries and reviews of such photographs shows that the genre interpellates a particular spectator, for whom the “distance” of suffering is viewed from a comfortable centre. This mode of spectatorship is identifiable as “white” in its claim to unmarked privilege. The photographs threaten to destabilise this unmarked privilege in potentially productive ways, but the reproduction of colonial viewing relations means that whiteness remains centred. The paper concludes by attempting to destabilise the centre by bringing the discussion of the relation between suffering and sovereignty closer to “home

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Colonialism · Computer security · Political science · Privilege (computing · Racism · Relation (database · Sociology · Sovereignty · Vulnerability (computing · White (mutation · White privilege · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Gender Studies · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Law · Participatory Visual Research Methods

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