The Atrocity of Representing Atrocity - Watching Kevin Carter's 'Struggling Girl'

Merlijn Geurts

doi:10.58519/aesthinv.v1i1.12001

The Atrocity of Representing Atrocity - Watching Kevin Carter's 'Struggling Girl'

Authors

Merlijn Geurts n/a

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58519/aesthinv.v1i1.12001

Keywords:

Ariella Azoulay, Kevin Carter, Atrocity photography

Abstract

Taking Kevin Carter's famous photograph of a Sudanese 'Struggling Girl' as an example, this article shows by criticizing the work of photography scholar Ariella Azoulay who argues for an ethic, reparative spectatorship that focuses on the social encounters behind the photograph, how discussions about atrocity photography often result in moral debates: discussions that center around the social relations behind photography and blame the photographer, but do not take into account and criticize the photographic representation of the atrocity. By giving an overview of the afterlife of Carter's photograph, the articles shows how such a 'social' focus on photography, easily reaffirms the social inequalities that lies within the practices of atrocity photography.

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Author Biography

Merlijn Geurts, n/a

Merlijn Geurts, MA. holds a MA (research master) in Comparative Literary Studies (Utrecht University) and is currently part of the editorial board of Frame - Journal of Literary Studies and is program assistent at political and cultural platform De Balie, Amsterdam.

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Figure 1

Published

2015-07-16

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1

Section

Articles

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How to Cite

Geurts, Merlijn. 2015. “The Atrocity of Representing Atrocity - Watching Kevin Carter’s ’Struggling Girl’”. Aesthetic Investigations 1 (1): 1-13. https://doi.org/10.58519/aesthinv.v1i1.12001.