Description
This paper proposes that COVID-19 presents a challenge to the idea of the iconic image and that the problem of the images is not the images per se, but how we look and engage with them. I argue that we must look at COVID-19 from a perspective that allows us to see beyond the iconic images to address a form of suffering that is not iconic or visceral but silent, mediated and subjective. This paper will focus on the case of COVID-19 in Brazil and the testimonies given by victims and families of victims of COVID-19 during the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI). I will first discuss the power of the image in international relations and how iconic images have framed debates over conflicts and war. Second, I will discuss how it is possible to go beyond the mere looking at images to consider a perspective in which it is possible to ‘watch’ the ‘bodies in suffering’ and challenge our affective engagement with the pain of others. Third, I will discuss some visual representations of COVID-19. Lastly, I will address the testimonies given during the CPI, and how it is possible to (re)address them to engage with a perspective that allows us to acknowledge people's suffering during COVID-19.
