Conclusion: In Defence of Images?

The conclusion acknowledges the helplessness and inadequacy of documentary images vis-à-vis something as enormous as the genocide in Rwanda, expressed by survivors as well as critics such as Susan Sontag and Barbie Zelizer. But it goes on to argue that this helplessness mostly stems from the fact that the representations considered here are already latent (and unable to influence what they represent) as well as from the ambitious and sometimes inflated expectations critics and audiences put on these images. The conclusion then charts the memorial and evidential functions of images and films about death and suffering discussed in the earlier chapters of the book, as well as the value of the close analysis of what, how and in what context these images show—a usefulness that goes beyond the ideas of prevention or intervention.