3. Landscapes of Slow Violence

“Landscapes of Slow Violence” analyzes digital photographs and video of environmental devastation and urban development in the Global South. Case studies include the digitally manipulated landscapes of Chinese photographers Yao Lu (New Landscapes, 2007–2010) and Jiang Pengyi (Unregistered Cities, 2008–2010), drone-enabled video pieces from Sardinian-born Mitra Azar (Scars & Borders, 2016), as well as the more straightforward, almost photojournalistic series of South African-born Gideon Mendel (Drowning World, 2007–2010). I analyze these works in terms of Rob Nixon’s theory of “slow violence,” which describes the uneven impact of climate change on the global poor. The object-oriented, thing-centric philosophies discussed in the first two chapters now read through the lens of slow violence, resulting in a troubling elision of lived experience and local knowledges. Ultimately, the desire to reduce the world to a series of objects may eliminate hierarchies, but in doing so, it erases the often problematic histories once encoded in those hierarchies.