Rhetoric of Visual Witnessing

 What is the potential and what are the problems of still photography as a medium of witnessing? In this course we will consider the place of photographic observation in the theory of witnessing and testimony, exploring the relationship between picture-making and culture and the representation of historical events. Readings will be drawn from recent works of theory, criticism and practice that variously address the status of the witness and photographic techniques of observation, record and the representation of recent human catastrophe.