Image, Culture and Cruelty: Photography and the Modern Iconsphere of Violence

Tomasz FERENC

Katedra Socjologii Sztuki, Instytut Socjologii, Wydział Ekonomiczno-Socjologiczny, Uniwersytet Łódzki, ul. Rewolucji 1905 r., 90-214 Łódź, Poland , Poland

Abstract

Relations between image and violence need to be analyzed in a variety of theoretical perspectives and contexts. Such a relation always adopts a different shape, serves a different cause and has different consequences. With the advent of photography, visual violence has gotten a new intensity. Mechanically reproduced images became easy to distribute and came into widespread, mass circulation. Another revolutionary change was caused by the universal availability of the Internet. In the present article, an attempt was taken to point to the dynamics of this cultural phenomenon by showing its examples in fine-art photography, commemorative photography, advertising photography and photojournalism.

Keywords:

violence, photography, art, photojournalism, advertisement, photo-mobbing, Internet.