Morfologia della lacrima: immagini della sofferenza nel fotoreportage di guerra contemporaneo = A Morphology of Tears: Images of Suffering in Contemporary War Photojournalism

This article analyses the construction of pain, as dramatization of suffering, in contemporary photojournalism culture. By studying three pictures, shot during different conflicts and awarded prizes by the World Press Photo Association, this contribution examines how the repetition of Western iconography ‘figural models’ – such as the mater dolorosa and the pietas – forms part of a dramatization strategy involving the photographic act. The persistence of a religious memory in photographed subjects’ poses and the implied photo-editorial choices reveals a non-neutral intentionality that forces us to question both the relationship between image-making and news-making and the dynamics of their propagation into a political strategy characterised by the necessity of humanitarian interventionism.