her body and the petite figures of the children in the photograph makes the image seem to exude a maternal glow . By sanctifying the mother , Salgado attempts to draw the viewer ' s attention to the ongoing suffering of mother and child , and the aura created in the photograph guides the audiences to see them as part of a “ long Christian tradition of the iconography of suffering ” ( Shawcross and Hodgson , 1987 , p . 3 ).
It can be said that most of Salgado ' s work appeals to the viewer emotionally . However , in addition to his artistic rendering of the photograph mentioned above , its power to evoke the viewer ' s emotions lies in its direct visual representation of the atrocity ; it conveys the message that someone is suffering . The most straightforward revelation of the suffering during the famine is the children ’ s skinny and skeletal bodies accompanying the striking distended bellies , and this can be seen in this image . This could be a very clear example of what Roland Barthes would call the “ punctum ” ( Barthes , 2000 , p . 27 ) in a photograph : the severe drought has led to children ’ s starvation , malnutrition , and other serious health problems , which appalls the spectator . “ Punctum ” fires out the image and pierces the viewer ( p . 26 ), and it is something that viewers apply to the image as a result of their own personal feelings and experiences . Therefore , when spectators of the photograph know the context of the famine in Africa , the truth of the message in the image begins to seep into their conscience , provoking the spectator ’ s sympathy . The image of a child with ” distended belly ” and “ racked ribs ” has become a symbol of famine ( Campbell , 2012 , p . 82 ), and the images of famine-stricken children in Africa presented in various media today are arguably always similar in some way , such as the photograph below which was also taken by Salgadoat at the height of the famine in Sahel .
Sebastião Salgado - Untitled , Mali , Africa 1985
In this image , a naked child stands upright with his head tilted to one side , with a tree behind him that appears to be withering or dead . Salgado has framed both in this momentary parallel . The child ’ s skeletal body resembles the tree , but the only difference is that he is a living being . Starvation and malnutrition , the most visual representation of the atrocities committed against the child and the blatant parallel with the tree , this careful presentation enhances the emotional power of the image ( Fehrenbach and Rodogno , 2015 , p . 1127 ) and somehow better stirs the moral conscience . Children are imbued with an innate innocence , and a need to rely on others and be protected from the outside world , and these associated cultural assumptions are what make children a symbol of the suffering of
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