Reflections on a photograph of a captive

Adelita Husni-Bey — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 00:08:52 +0000

There’s a haunting image that’s grabbed my attention like no other. It’s been circulated frantically and has appeared on countless newspapers and websites in the past weeks. Its’ focal point is unclear, the colours are faint and muddy, the lens has bloated the centre of the frame, distorting the portrait. The image undercuts our current habits as viewers, used to a form of direct unequivocal communication, to clear rhetorical symbolism: the protester high atop the vandalized police van, the politician admonishing, protected by a forest of microphones, the young hooded student, arm high and tense, throwing an object overhead; something in this photograph resonates beyond this imaginific regurgitation of 68, yet it is happening now, amidst the rest of the rhetorical scenarios.

through europe - photography

Reflections on a photograph of a captive