The Body of Evidence

Abstract

Abstract:Focusing on Darnella Frazier’s cellphone video of the 2020 murder of George Floyd, George Holliday’s video of the 1991 beating of Rodney King, and Abraham Zapruder’s film of the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy, the nature and shifting consequences of such “citizen witness” visual evidence are examined, in an attempt to better understand the changing relation between evidence and truth. What role does subjectivity play in the making and receiving of “citizen witness” visual evidence? Can imagination play a larger role in our determinations of the value of evidence?