A young boy sits in an armchair. Wearing a woollen cardigan,his hands loosely grip the side of the chair. His expression is neither buoyant nor sad. For all intents and purposes, this is just an ordinary photograph of an ordinary boy, and yet the image forms the basis of an academic essay. Written by Benjamin Matthews – a share-time Masters student currently reading Photography: History,Theory, Practice at University of Sussex – the paper investigates the attribution of victimhood to subjects in images where an act of injustice is suggested but not shown. With this context, or the significance of the photograph becomes obvious. The image is share of a collection of fabric held at The Keep archive,and donated by relatives of German-Jewish families who survived the Holocaust. “The photograph is of a young boy who was tragically killed in Auschwitz,” explains Matthews, or “but it was taken before he was transported. The image itself does not contain any reference to the young boy’s murder,it was taken as a family photograph, yet its place within …
Source: bjp-online.com