Oh dear!

“Look, the photographs say, this is what it’s like. This is what war does. And that, that is what it does, to. War tears, rends. War rips open, eviscerates. War scorches. War dismembers. War ruins.”
S. Sontag, Regarding the pains of others.







Then on the other hand Sontag also spoke about compassion fatigue amongst other problems surrounding the representation of violence and suffering. Another term for compassion fatigue might be odearism:




To be honest, Goya's etchings Los Desastres de la Guerra were made in the early 19th century and still they move me more than anything I've seen in today's media. To be honest, if I feel more looking at 2oo year old etchings of suffering than I do from looking at modern photo journalistic depictions of it. That either says something about me or about the modern representation of suffering. My biased guess is on the latter since I don't think it is that much wrong with me.

Taking a step away from my own egocentrical self for a bit. What does this call for? Can we do anything about it? My own opinion is that it calls for more subjectivy within the field of documentary photography. Firstly, Goya must have had to look at or imagine the horrors he depicted. After that he must have spent what I guess is quite some time sketching and later etching these drawings of intricate scenes of suffering. Neverthelss it was not at the push of a button nor was it any removed objective mind who created these images. It was someone who at length spent time dwelling on these horrors who must have created this.

Sometimes, when looking at moderns depictions of war, I feel a kind of kinship between Goya's Los Desastres de la Guerra and Nachtwey's Inferno. Not only for the choice of subject nor for the artistry of its creators. However, just as the work of Goya points towards an extended time spent contemplating these horrors, such contemplation of misery is found in the compelation of horrors that is Nachtwey's Inferno. I have yet to sift through that book in one go. I hope I never will be able to.




A friend said to me earlier this evening that he doesn't often walk away from the content of this blog feeling happy. So this is something else...or on the other hand maybe not: