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A photograph operates to take an entire moment and compress this information into a single, two-dimensional image. With images of violence and human suffering, this process translates facts and figures into a language of images that all who see the photograph can speak, understand, and engage. While this method of information consumption is by no means encompassing, the limit of the frame does ... read moreenable the photographer to make mass atrocity available for mass consumption. An atrocity photograph, therefore, is both universal and restrictive as a method of communication: though it can convey a photographer’s intentions to a viewer, it cannot present a comprehensive understanding of violent acts or the complete context of human suffering. Ariella Azoulay addresses the potential of universal connections via atrocity portraiture with the Civil Contract of Photography, or the ideas of citizenry in the photographic processes and how this creates a contract of trust among the three relational actors of a photograph: the subject, the photographer, and the spectator. This thesis analyzes three cases of atrocity portraiture within the structure of the Civil Contract of Photography, examining the ways in which different genres of atrocity portraits—each with unique methods of image construction and exhibition—contribute to global imaginaries of mass atrocities and deeper engagement of viewer response outside of the photographic frame.read less
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