Narratives of suffering and an ambivalence of feeling in the photographs of Jeff Wall

Abstract

Jeff Wall interferes with the traditions and viewing habits associated with documentary photography. This is primarily achieved through destabilising the status of the documentary photograph as an objectively recorded fact and through invoking the traditions of Western image making in painting. In alluding to suffering and implying violence, Wall alienates a viewer from an automated response and complicates familiar ways of viewing photographs. By impeding meaning making, he restores mystery and uncertainty to the viewing process.