Image andreflection: the body in pain

Abstract

This essay reflects on contemporary images as the body of the pain of the Other, as reflection spaces in themselves, starting from a phenomenological reading on images of bodies in pain, as well as considering them points of reflection about bodies seen as “different”. From Emmanuel Levinas it is possible to infer that images of bodies in pain open a reflection based on how opaque the image becomes as it hinders its own thematic. The images by photographer Sebastião Salgado have been selected as a reference for they induce thoughts of a quotidian without narratives, pushing the usual readings of bodies off balance, as bodies in dialogue with the world. The image of a “sore” body is, therefore, a reflection on an introvert body with no dialogue with the world – a body of excess. This is therefore another proposal to analyze Salgado’s photography.