The Voice of the Visual in Memory- Barbie Zelizer
Barbie Zelizer’s essay “The Voices of the Visual in Memory” examines the ways in which images and photographs shape collective memory. Zelizer argues that images interact with the viewer in a uniquely visceral way and states that images serve as the main vehicle for collective memory. According to Zelizer, images function within collective memory by captivating the viewer in its presentation of a moment that is caught neither in its beginning or its end- but in the middle. She states that most images capture and event or occurrence at the “most pregnant moment” and argues that “this point is crucial for explaining the role of images in memory. It suggests that images help us remember the past by freezing its representation at a powerful moment already known to us” (Zelizer, 158). Essentially, images reveal more about the past and its meaning to the viewer as opposed to what is actually physically depicted in the photograph.
Zelizer’s explanation of the doubling – well, technically tripling – that occurs when a spectators encounters an image of the past proves fascinating. She explains that subjunctive voice (leaves room for the “what could bes” of what is being represented) and encourages the viewers to interpret the image in a way that goes beyond its physical representation. According to Zelizer, when a viewer encounters an image from the past a tension between the images denotative and connotative forces emerge to influence the viewers interpretation and relation to the image, history, and collective memory. As a photographer, this doubling is fascinating to me. Although Zelizer does challenge the scope of this approach by the end of the essay, the process of both accepting an image as a legit historic event and at the same time viewing the image as a mere representation of that event with which one can project their emotions, feelings, and possibilities on the moment is beyond complex and interesting.
I thought about Devin Allen’s photo in Time Magazine of the Baltimore Riots. I felt that the concepts presented by Zelizer were on display in a physical way through this photo. Or rather, the image subverts the tendencies described in the essay. The photo is a representation of the past as well as a current event. The America with the 1968 crossed out and 2016 written over it serves as an active voice on the photo to communicate to the audience that this is not a photograph from 40 years prior – like it would remind the viewer of if the text were not present- but is a current depiction of the streets of Baltimore. In this way, this photograph made me think about how its presentation catches the viewer in an in-between moment- which is kind of cool since majority of the Zelizer’s discussion focuses on the process of images capturing events in in-between moments. What I mean by this is that not only is the photograph being captured in the middle of this moment, it simultaneously reminds of us the past yet leaves little room to project our imaginations or the “as if” on its future as it is also communicating to the viewer that the future is now. The possibilities of the viewers imaginings are limited as it forces the spectator to view the image in its actual space and time and to deal with the present reality on very real terms. And what impact would this have on collective memory and social change? Regardless, perhaps this is presentation of an image is an alternative to what Zelizer views as the type of distortion that occurs when encountering images as she considers the traditional approach to photo viewership as “a kind of irrational game-playing with what we see, projecting altered ends on the screens through which we see”? (Zelizer, 180).
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