Finding Christ in Photographs of Suffering

Abstract

Photojournalists employ images in order to tell a news story, honestly and impartially while telling the story in strictly journalistic terms. Theologians, specialists in theology, reflect on faith as a personal response to God's self-communication. This article is an innovative attempt to bring them together, photojournalism and theology. Indeed, both make use of verbal and non-verbal language as well as a person's imagination. The author shows that both shall not exclude an urgent social concern for the common good. Here the author presents his reflection from a context of a country, the Philippines, in the middle of drug-war with its continuous increase of victims of extra-judicial killings (EJK). Can a picture or photograph lead the viewers to a deeper meaning of a tragic reality even if they weren't there? Can a photograph of EJK help Christians to reflect on their faith and act on it?

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