January 20, 2005
Putting the photos in perspective
A very interesting piece by Josie Appleton for Spiked-Culture" on how degrading photographs permeate our culture. Reference is made to "On Photography", a slim book of essays published in 1977 by the American writer Susan Sontag, who died a few weeks ago.
"Sontag showed how Western society's use of images reflects its problems of social, intellectual and moral alienation. showed how Western society's use of images reflects its problems of social, intellectual and moral alienation the photos.
[...] The photos from Abu Ghraib made public bear a striking resemblance to the everyday torture and humiliation that is part of our reality TV-obsessed culture.
And Appleton brings up something I've never read about before, "a new London craze called 'happy slapping', where boys go up to people in public, slap them around the face, and get their mates to video it on their mobile phones."
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