Humanizing the Inhuman: Photographing Death in Duterte’s Drug War

• Main Author: Calo, Adrian
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2018
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/paha/vol8/iss2/5; https://archium.ateneo.edu/context/paha/article/1281/viewcontent/PAHA_208.2_205_20Reviews_20__20Calo.pdf
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

Excerpt: Rodrigo Duterte’s murderous drug war has left thousands dead in the Philippines. It has also produced innumerable photographs of victims readily transmitted to the world stage. These graphic images of dehumanized bodies sprawled and bloodied on the streets are transformed into digital artifacts and circulated in the global capitalist media economy. The continuing consumption by a worldwide audience has commodified these images, leaving them in a cycle of repetition and exchange and producing ambiguous effects to the viewers who gaze upon them. In his lecture “Humanizing the Inhuman: Photographing Death in Duterte’s Drug War” at SOAS University of London on May 16, 2018, Vicente Rafael investigates the meanings and effects of these photos through the eyes (and lens) of the photographers who have captured them.