The Ethics’ Crisis of Visual Representation of War (the Photography’s Dimension)

Abstract

Introduction. Digital photography, mobile technologies, and social platforms have actualized the problem of the ethics of representation and contemplation of cruelty, violence, and death. In Russian-Ukrainian war’s context, the topic’s relevance is due to the ongoing discussions in the public space about the appropriateness of disseminating photographs that depict violence or suffering. Relevance of the study. The relevance is due to the role of photo facts in the construction of media reality, social attitudes and individual experiences. The goal is to systematize the conceptual dominants of the debate on the ethics of photographic representation of war. Methods. On the basis of empirical analysis, the main components of the scientific problem are updated, in particular the subject of research, its scientific and applied contexts. The system analysis was used in the work with the theoretical base of the research and establishment of interdisciplinary connections in the discussion about the ethical and aesthetic modes of functioning of sensitive media content, the problems of photorepresentation of war in the media. Comparative, analytical and descriptive methods ensured the disclosure of the features of the ethical-aesthetic paradigm of the media essence of photography. Generalization and synthesis made it possible to argue the conclusions, to find out their correspondence to the tasks. Results. Based on the systematization of the representatives’ concepts of various scientific fields (photography theorists, philosophers, art historians, social communication researchers, etc.), it is proved that ethical issues related to the creation, distribution, and perception of sensitive content relate to different contexts: exploitation and retraumatization, affect and aestheticization, objectification and politicization. Scholars and experts focus on a critical analysis of the nature and extent of the viewer’s participation in the visual field, the modes of civic engagement and the inherent empathic, sentimental and passive response. Сonclusions. The study focuses on the role of sensitive war photographs in the construction of a political space in which the need for the visual as testimony, the right to advocacy, and the recognition of a crime are actualized. In turn, the visual intolerance of the represented violent act or suffering provokes a discussion of the problem of aestheticizing images as a dilemma between deliberate embellishment and identification of formal and compositional expressive means of photography.