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Creative and crime scene photography : staged patricide and matricide as screen memories in Aida Chehrehgosha’s To Mom, Dad and My Two Brothers

Mendelytė, Atėnė LU (2022) In Photographies 15(2). p.167-186
Abstract

Aida Chehrehgosha’s award-winning photography series To Mom, Dad and My Two Brothers (2008) in which the artist controversially stages the death of her abusive mother and father is examined in this essay as exemplifying a form of screen memories — a conscious psychodynamic strategy, introduced by Sigmund Freud, employed here to both expose and heal traumatic experiences. Challenging the dominant views in trauma theory and psychoanalysis regarding the role of visuality vis-à-vis narrativization, I claim that in Chehrehgosha’s series the visual works both to indicate the trauma as well as to point to its overdetermined, complex nature. Moreover, the photographs are revealed to be palimpsestic and hybrid in their implicit photographic... (More)

Aida Chehrehgosha’s award-winning photography series To Mom, Dad and My Two Brothers (2008) in which the artist controversially stages the death of her abusive mother and father is examined in this essay as exemplifying a form of screen memories — a conscious psychodynamic strategy, introduced by Sigmund Freud, employed here to both expose and heal traumatic experiences. Challenging the dominant views in trauma theory and psychoanalysis regarding the role of visuality vis-à-vis narrativization, I claim that in Chehrehgosha’s series the visual works both to indicate the trauma as well as to point to its overdetermined, complex nature. Moreover, the photographs are revealed to be palimpsestic and hybrid in their implicit photographic gaze, blurring the line between scientific and aesthetic uses of photography, legal and artistic discourses, fundamentally questioning the experience of being a victim and a criminal. As such, the artwork is understood as a unique and complex photographic way to represent and address painful experiences and mixed affects — a palimpsestic approach to screening trauma.

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author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Photographies
volume
15
issue
2
pages
20 pages
publisher
Taylor & Francis
external identifiers
  • scopus:85133234046
ISSN
1754-0763
DOI
10.1080/17540763.2022.2060291
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
01bc3cd4-e817-48b8-9b9f-8eb02dfcd592
date added to LUP
2022-08-24 16:43:54
date last changed
2022-08-24 17:00:17
@article{01bc3cd4-e817-48b8-9b9f-8eb02dfcd592,
  abstract     = {{<p>Aida Chehrehgosha’s award-winning photography series To Mom, Dad and My Two Brothers (2008) in which the artist controversially stages the death of her abusive mother and father is examined in this essay as exemplifying a form of screen memories — a conscious psychodynamic strategy, introduced by Sigmund Freud, employed here to both expose and heal traumatic experiences. Challenging the dominant views in trauma theory and psychoanalysis regarding the role of visuality vis-à-vis narrativization, I claim that in Chehrehgosha’s series the visual works both to indicate the trauma as well as to point to its overdetermined, complex nature. Moreover, the photographs are revealed to be palimpsestic and hybrid in their implicit photographic gaze, blurring the line between scientific and aesthetic uses of photography, legal and artistic discourses, fundamentally questioning the experience of being a victim and a criminal. As such, the artwork is understood as a unique and complex photographic way to represent and address painful experiences and mixed affects — a palimpsestic approach to screening trauma.</p>}},
  author       = {{Mendelytė, Atėnė}},
  issn         = {{1754-0763}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{167--186}},
  publisher    = {{Taylor & Francis}},
  series       = {{Photographies}},
  title        = {{Creative and crime scene photography : staged patricide and matricide as screen memories in Aida Chehrehgosha’s To Mom, Dad and My Two Brothers}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17540763.2022.2060291}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/17540763.2022.2060291}},
  volume       = {{15}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}