Photography and the representation of suffering

Photography and the representation of suffering — Based on a comparison of three photographs — Lewis Hine’s “A Madonna of the tenements”, Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant mother”, and the image of João Hélio printed on his mother’s t-shirt — this paper examines the transformations that the representation of suffering and pain have undergone. The public dimension of these images — through the image of the suffering mother — illustrates the changes the public space has undergone and the central role of the victims’ discourse in the contemporary world.