Photography, Trace, and Trauma2017
by Margaret Iversen
Photography is often associated with the psychic effects of trauma: the automatic nature of the process, wide-open camera lens, and light-sensitive film record chance details unnoticed by the photographer<U+2014>similar to what happens when a traumatic event bypasses consciousness and lodges deeply in the unconscious mind. "Photography, Trace, and Trauma" takes a groundbreaking look at photographic art and works in other media that explore this important analogy. Examining photography and film, molds, rubbings, and more, Margaret Iversen considers how these artistic processes can be understood as presenting or simulating a residue, trace, or “index” of a traumatic event. These approaches, which involve close physical contact or the short-circuiting of artistic agency, are favored by...