Vincente Rafael
The Hazards of Witnessing: Photographing the Philippine Drug War
April 10, 20 Cooper Square, 4th Floor, 5:30-7:30PM,
Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, with light refreshments
In this paper, I inquire into the narco- and necro-politics of the war on drugs under the regime of Pres. Rodrigo Duterte. While still popular among his supporters, the war has nonetheless also called forth other responses. One example has been the work of photojournalists. In the context of the drug war, how does photojournalism become a kind of advocacy as much as a form of mourning? How is trauma and witnessing braided together in the experience of photographers covering the drug war? What are the ambivalent effects of aestheticizing the image of those killed by the police and their death squads? How does the aesthetic rendering of death make possible the act of witnessing even as it repeatedly endangers it? What is the fate of photographic images once rendered into commodities by the global media and put into circulation for the consumption of anonymous viewers? And among families of the victims, how is the dead remembered in ways that elude photographic capture?
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I find it very interesting how much Filipinos have embraced Korean culture, especially our music and fashion. I always enjoy watching YouTube videos of Pinoy dancers doing their cover of KPop groups
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I find it very interesting how much Filipinos have embraced Korean culture, especially our music and fashion. I always enjoy watching YouTube videos of Pinoy dancers doing their cover of KPop groups