Beautiful suffering
Subtitle: photography and the traffic in pain
By: Mark Reinhardt, Holly Edwards, Erina Dugganne, eds. ; essays by Mark Reinhardt ... [et al.]
Contributors: Reinhardt, Mark; Edwards, Holly; Dugganne, Erina
Publisher: Williams College Museum of Art; In association with the University of Chicago Press
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Williamstown, MA; Chicago
Language: eng
Number of pages: 115
ISBN-13: 9780226709505
Subjects: Documentary photography -- Exhibitions; Suffering in art -- Exhibitions; Photographic criticism -- Exhibitions
Genres: Exhibitions
Description: Susan Sontag once remarked that since the invention of the camera, photography has kept company with death. And indeed, images of suffering human beings and devastated landscapes appear regularly in the popular media and even in contemporary art. This volume explores these painful images from the past few decades of photography, weighing in on the intense critical debate that has arisen in recent years around depictions of acute human suffering especially those that are beautifully rendered. Drawing on works from advertising, photojournalism, art photography, and conceptual art, "Beautiful Suffering" features reproductions of all the pieces in the Williams College Museum of Art exhibition that shares its name including portrayals of AIDS sufferers, Abu Ghraib prisoners, refugees, and casualties of war. It also includes five critical essays that engage the works themselves as well as the larger issues the exhibition confronts: Is it inherently problematic to seek aesthetic pleasure in a rendering of pain? And if so, why? These essays, composed by scholars in fields as diverse as art history and political science, are perfect complements to the powerful images of suffering that probe some of the most pressing issues we face today. "
Notes: "This book is issued in conjunction with the exhibition Beautiful suffering : photography and the traffic in pain, held at the Williams College Museum of Art, January 28-April 30, 2006"--T.p. verso

Includes bibliographical references
Table of contents: title: Traffic in pain / Mark Reinhardt and Holly Edwards; title: Picturing violence : aesthetics and the anxiety of critique / Mark Reinhardt; title: A genealogy of orthodox documentary / John Stomberg; title: Photography after the fact / Erina Duganne; title: Cover to cover : the life cycle of an image in contemporary visual culture / Holly Edwards; title: The pain of images / Mieke Bal