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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
The Childhood Of Human Rights: The Kodak On The Congo, Sharon Sliwinski
The Childhood Of Human Rights: The Kodak On The Congo, Sharon Sliwinski
Sharon Sliwinski
This chapter examines the Congo reform movement’s use of atrocity photographs in their human rights campaign (c. 1904–13) against Belgian King Leopold, colonial ruler of the Congo Free State. This material analysis shows that human rights are conceived by spectators who, with the aid of the photographic apparatus, are compelled to judge that crimes against humanity are occurring to others. The article also tracks how this judgement has been haunted by the potent wish to undo the suffering witnessed.
Visual Testimony: Lee Miller’S Dachau, Sharon Sliwinski
Visual Testimony: Lee Miller’S Dachau, Sharon Sliwinski
Sharon Sliwinski
This essay examines images of the liberation of Dachau concentration camp taken by American war correspondent and photographer Lee Miller. Miller’s work is mobilized as an optic through which to grasp the shock of confronting the Nazi camps. Her images are read as a form of visual testimony. That is, although they fail to provide a transparent view of what occurred in the Nazi lagers, they are nevertheless inscribed with all that the photographer did not know of the events to which she bore witness. The nature of this strange unintelligibility is what the author pursues: the visual inscription of …
The Childhood Of Human Rights: The Kodak On The Congo, Sharon Sliwinski
The Childhood Of Human Rights: The Kodak On The Congo, Sharon Sliwinski
Sharon Sliwinski
This article examines the Congo reform movement’s use of atrocity photographs in their human rights campaign (c. 1904–13) against Belgian King Leopold, colonial ruler of the Congo Free State. This material analysis shows that human rights are conceived by spectators who, with the aid of the photographic apparatus, are compelled to judge that crimes against humanity are occurring to others. The article also tracks how this judgement has been haunted by the potent wish to undo the suffering witnessed.