Publication 3: Uncomfortable Image Ranking

In our critique groups, we were set the task to each choose one of our uncomfortable images in order to arrange them into orders based on 4 categories that we were given; uncomfortable-easy, ethical-unethical, important-trivial and vulgar-cathartic. This task caused a few debates on a lot of the order decisions, mainly in terms of the physical vs psychological meanings of each picture.

I chose an image of a rabbit being tested on in its eyes as it was the image that made me most uncomfortable and upset, there was also an image of a pair of shoes made from banana and banana peel, an image of raw meat, an image of a dead body that was burnt by a Volcano, an image of jewish children in the holocaust behind a fence, an image of a row of dead soldiers and lastly the famous photograph that was taken at Trảng Bàng during the Vietnam War of the girl running away from a bomb naked as all of her clothes set fire.

Uncomfortable-Easy;

Ethical-Unethical;

Important-Trivial;

Vulgar-Cathartic;

A lot of interesting questions came up through this process, these questions have potential to form the focus of my publication; 

• Is it more about the visuals or the context that they are used in?
• The uses...is it for a good cause? 
• Is it important because it is something that is normal to happen in this age (contemporary)? or is it a more historical image?
• Is it okay to test on animals because of the uses??? (I disagree with this as many cosmetic products don't test on animals)
• Beauty>animals or animals>beauty?
• What is it being used for?
• What is the context? What if the image was just of a rabbit at the vets? This would completely change your opinion of the photograph