Uppsala Forum Guest Lecture: "The Death in their Eyes"

The visual representation of mass crimes and genocide has always presented a challenge to mass media since the cameras had access to the crime scenes. Among the modes of adopting a concrete point of view in relation to the facts (for example, the witnesses’ or liberators’ point of view), the so-called perpetrator images are undoubtedly the most sensitive and challenging, as they require us to observe the misdeeds through the eyes of those who committed the murders. As acts of violence themselves, perpetrator images raise ethical questions about their legitimate use in subsequent reappropriations.

Vicente Sánchez-Biosca is a Professor of Visual Culture and Communication at the University of Valencia, where he directs the research group REPERCRI, whose focus is the study of perpetrators of mass violence. His most recent publication is entitled The Death in Their Eyes: What Perpetrator Images Perpetrate (Berghahn, 2024).