Book review: Seeing Justice: Witnessing, Crime, and Punishment in Visual Media

Abstract

Pages 147 147–148 In a technological environment that enables the proliferation of a variety of voices, the role of images in the relationship between state actors, media, and citizens is becoming more complex. Questions pertaining to the discursive role of images have highlighted the importance of considering how power operates within larger contexts of the image-making process (e.g., Sekula, 1986; Tagg, 1999). In Seeing Justice, Bock joins this line of research, warning us that “We can no longer afford to carelessly play with visuality’s fire” (p. 217) because images have immediate, on-the-ground implications on people’s lives. Through an examination of case studies like public hangings, mug shots, camera coverage of court rooms, and other examples related to the United States criminal justice system, Bock highlights the significance of embodied experiences to the politics of visuality.