A Double 'Double Take'

Abstract

Where does a picture, a visual depiction of an act of violence, locate us, the observers? Whose perspective do we adopt, and/or perform, when we are confronted with an image of the tormented body, the object of pain and suffering, of a vulnerable victim, with or without the presence of the perpetrators? In what follows, we start with discussing the propensity to adopt certain positionalities in facing these questions, their analytic and ethical implications. The text then draws on Derrida's notion of the frame (parergon) in analyzing Jojakim Cortis’ and Adrian Sonderegger’s Double Take poster, showing a diorama of the Abu Ghraib torture photographs, which may enable a complex, double, perspective, and suggest a reading that could unsettle the familiar repertoire of treating/conflating victims' and perpetrators' perspective – a double “double take.”

Keywords

• observing violence, photography, abu ghraib, torture, frame, derrida