Susan Sontag famously demanded that looking is a human obligation. May it be corpses of children in Syria or brutal street riots in Egypt – oftentimes the depicted scenes are hard to cope with. A starving child with vultures already looming – do we need to look? Are we allowed to show this? In a double bind, war photography is positioned between these two poles.
The discussion took place among the pictures of the World Press Photo exhibition and about 280 visitors came to follow it closely. 
 

Participants
Fritz Hausjell, Professor for Media Studies, University of Vienna
Rubina Möhring, President of Reporters Without Borders Austria
Robert Newald, photographer
Petra Ramsauer, reporter for international newspapers such as NZZ, Zeit, News, Ha’aretz

The panel was chaired by
Julia Herrnböck, editor at DER STANDARD

Photo credits: Peter Jakadofsky (WestLicht)