Inscription of alterity, artifactization of the gaze: the photography of vulnerable people in Lee Jefries

Abstract

This paper takes up the photographic work Lost Angels (2014), by Lee Jefries, which portraits people living on the streets in large urban centers, to think about how the effects of the structure in photographic image constitute a contingent relationship of alterity. Through these portraits of vulnerable people, Jeffries signs ways to summon the look articulated between the desired codification and the regularization of the aesthetic dimension. In this duality, the images are examined based on the possible repercussions of the modes of figuration that trigger a certain visual delight according to the ways in which the presence of people is called upon. We reflect on how documentary photography could offer visual operators in the topics of human portrait and what is its specific designation in these subjects’ exposures in a plastic and conversational perspective of the image.

Keywords
documentary photography; invisibility; vulnerability