1. Stage 2
Oral presentation
The Movement of Vulnerability:
Images of Falling and September 11
(Andrea Fitzpatrick, 2007)
Chiara Landi
King’s College London
July 2011

2. Outline
• Introduction
- Purpose
- Background
- Audience
• Body:
- Key points
- Evaluation
• Conclusion

3. Introduction
• Purpose
Do images of falling change the perception of
subjects’ vulnerability?
• Background
Tragedy of September 11
Richard Drew’s photography
• Audience
Art Critics, Professors, Journalists

4. The Falling Man
Richard Drew Photograph,
(2001)

5. Key points
• Relationship Art & Death
• Concept of Vulnerability
vulnerable = exposed to the possibility of
being attacked or harmed, either physically
or emotionally (Oxford Dictionary, 2004)

6. Strengths
• Author’s position is clear
• Hard topic
• Other research to support the argument

7. Weaknesses
•Academic language
•Non-essential descriptions
•Not easy to follow
•Lack of opposite points of view

8. Barthes’s theory (1980)
STUDIUM PUNCTUM
- It makes a photograph interesting - Wound
- It is chosen by the photographer - Beyond
- It is the same for all viewers photographer’s
- Objective control
- Subjective

9. Conclusion is not based on the evidence
Art and tragedies: should be avoided
• Loss of informational purpose
•Medium’s fault (Sontag, 1977) (Butler, 2004)

10. Conclusion
• Valid
• Interesting/hard topic
• Significant in its field
• Some fundamental problems
• Lack of other evidence
• Future developments

11. References
Barthes, R (1980). Camera Lucida. London: Vintage.
Butler, J (2004) Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning
and Violence. London: Verso
Drew, R (2001) The Falling man. Photograph.
WideWorldPhotos
Oxford Dictionary (2004). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sontag, S (1977). On Photography. London: Penguin

12. THANK YOU