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Art and Labor in the Framing of G uatemala's Dead
Author(s) -
Torres M. Gabriela
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
anthropology of work review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.151
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1548-1417
pISSN - 0883-024X
DOI - 10.1111/awr.12027
Subject(s) - narrative , framing (construction) , politics , clarity , negotiation , aesthetics , art , sociology , visual arts , media studies , political science , literature , law , history , social science , biochemistry , chemistry , archaeology
In G uatemala, how did photographers work to represent atrocity? Did they think of the images of death they produced as art? As work? In G uatemala, visual narratives provided by the camera were often more successful than the bullet at creating a sense of political clarity that actively obfuscated the disruptive and destructive force of political violence. Graphic reporters, as photographic journalists called themselves, actively worked to give images of violence their own aesthetic narrative: a narrative they had to negotiate with their editors, print reporters and, most importantly, the intelligence and public affairs arms of the G uatemalan A rmed F orces. In staging and orienting their images – defining what story they would tell and what characters and motivations they would allow into their frame of vision – graphic reporters consciously engaged in the production of a complexly authored narrative aesthetic that came to represent both atrocity and their own work as artists.