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Swimming In A Sea Of Hypocrisy?: The Ethical Ambiguity Of David Rieff's Memoir, Carolyn Rickett, Paul T. Race, Jill Gordon

Paul Race

When noted intellectual Susan Sontag died from myelodysplastic syndrome in 2004 aspects of her illness trajectory and death were captured and curated by photographer Annie Leibovitz. The harrowing photographs of Sontag’s diseased body – and later her corpse laid out in a New York mortuary – were included in travelling global exhibitions and were further commodified in Leibovitz’s book which she titled A Photographer’s Life. The historical events of Sontag’s illness and death were therefore (re)written and (re)presented in a way that involved commercial gain. Sontag’s son, the journalist David Rieff, registered his contempt for the perceived exploitation/unmaking of his …