RACHEL A.G. REYES

CARLO Gabuco is a Manila-based Filipino photographer specializing in street photography. He was responsible for taking the pictures that were included in the latest Human Rights Watch report on police killings. His images of slaughter and suffering—of defiled corpses, of bereaved families, of men stricken with fear—are undoubtedly nightmarish and profoundly disturbing. Looking at them induces shock, maybe even sickening nausea and revulsion, for most people at least. But if you looked at them the way the President’s spokespeople have done, and some members of the local news media, with cynicism and skepticism, these photos amount to sensationalism, and seem little more than products of clever camera trickery (lens filters, dramatic lighting, striking angles). For one dismissive pundit, they are the work of some ambitious guy wanting to win the Pulitzer Prize. In effect, Duterte apologists are claiming that the camera is lying.

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