Facing the Impossible

Tonight a friend took me to an ACLU/PEN sponsored event in which authors read aloud from formerly classified documents related to US interrogation policy.

It was strange to hear someone read aloud a first person account of torture, and then clap at the conclusion of the reading.

During the evening, the photographs of Abu Ghraib were mentioned several times. This led me to recall the photograph of someone carrying to a Congressional meeting a briefcase containing classified Abu Ghraib photos.

This image intrigues me for several reasons. First, the image alone isn't compelling. It is the knowledge that the briefcase contains the forbidden photographs that makes the image compelling.

Second, the person holding the briefcase of photographs is being pursued by the paparazzi. There is some kind of Russian nesting doll effect at work in a photograph of someone holding a case of photographs who is being pursued by photographers.

Third, the briefcase of undisclosed photographs are fairly close to a manifestation of Pandora's Box. To this day, it has not been disclosed what was photographed. One can assume atrocities are recorded because the images are classified.

These pictures represent a sinister form of potential. Those who have not seen them can project their worst fears on the photographs. They are a repository of people's notions about the worst human behavior.

The briefcase of photos also leads me to ponder items that aren't represented in art. There was a time when Buddha was shown by depicting a footprint or empty throne. Images of Allah are prohibited in Islamic tradition. In the play "Art," a blank canvass is the prop used to represent the controversial painting. A mysterious glowing suitcase is central to the plot of "Pulp Fiction." The contents are not revealed.

I suppose all of these examples are versions of a visual didactic. The missing image facilitates the creation of an image within the viewer.

I wonder what conjured images of the classified Abu Ghraib photos would say about people. Are those who think the very worst more realistic, sadistic, or negative? Are those who have a lighter sense of violence more optimistic, naive, or patriotic?

Its strange that imagining the infernal can be just as difficult as conjuring the sublime.