the past months have brought forth images that we have never seen before: empty, swept streets and inner cities, Doctors in full protective gear, people, disguised with scarves and face masks. Mass graves in South America and bodies of trucks in New York. The concrete suffering, but the personal stories behind the hundreds of thousands to Die of Covid-19, remain largely invisible.

The American art historian Sarah Elizabeth Lewis asks in an article in the New York Times: "Where are the photos of people dying of Covid-19?" Lewis warns that without such images harder to fight the Virus, "because in order to be able as a society to the pandemic respond appropriately, we need to see you".

so, Why do we not see the pandemic? Why has the crisis so far, not face-to-face?

The Heidelberger media scientist Thorsten Lorenz observed the media coverage of the corona of a crisis in weeks, exactly. Striking for the scientists: "It is a rule, there is a real lack of images. What we get to see, is hardly to be personalized, a little emotional, almost a kind of still life.“ An exception is made for those images from the Northern Italian province of Bergamo, on which the military vehicles at night, coffins with a Corona-to transport Victims. "These images revealed with the full force of the extent of the crisis and will stay in our memory," says Lorenz. But apart from images, "illustrating the extent of the pandemic and the crisis emotionally processed," says Lorenz, are missing.

For Lorenz is the simply to the unprecedented dimensions of the Corona pandemic. "We can't show the sheer mass of the Affected at all. There is not one image that is meaningful for the many victims.“ Unlike in the case of Wars or disasters the human suffering in the current crisis is less obvious. Jean-Christophe Bott/KEYSTONE/dp employee of a funeral company that transported the bodies of two Covid-19-the victim in an Elevator.

"people do not die on the field of battle or in a plane crash, but – as cynical as it is – it is much less spectacular: slowly, and in the private room of a hospital or nursing home," says Lorenz may sound. The Lockdown had created a distance to the Victims, the result is that there are hardly any pictures of them. And apart from the physical decay is considered to be due to disease generally, as a private matter, and thus, rarely discussed and illustrated.

curves and charts to make pandemic for us in a tangible way - is it enough?

The lack of pictures leads to the Rage of the Virus is made mainly with the help of statistics, charts, and curves visible. But most often, the Virus represents yourself: search on Google for "Corona", so each second search result shows almost those pimply Ball in colorful colors, now everyone knows.

"Because the consequences of the pandemic are so hard to describe in pictures, we have made it easy for us a picture of the Virus," says Lorenz. The graphical representations, and scanning electron photographs of the Coronavirus to help us to navigate with the "tangible symbols," a crisis that affects everyone, but at the same time so abstract and diffuse. But is that enough?

The American of art historians, Lewis argues, the Absence of dramatic images of human suffering in the corona of a crisis could cause people to appreciate the danger of the pandemic. To understand the magnitude of such a tragedy, be a lot easier if you'll visualized by images of sick people and Victims. The world is better than your bad news - FOCUS Online provides you every Friday with the best stories from the field perspectives. Subscribe here for free Newsletter:

Lewis' approach is based on the so-called "Identifiable Victim effect" (identifiable victim), the people tend to be helpful, if it is a special Person who is the victim of a disaster or of a conflict has become. Dramatic images of concrete the suffering and Sacrifice, so Lewis would have been moved in previous crises, the masses to act accordingly, and could also shake those awake who have not understood the extent of the corona of a crisis still.

so we Need more images of Horror, from the crisis to better understand and to be able to handle? Daniel Cole/AP/dpa A member of the health treated to a COVID-19-patients in the ICU of a hospital in the French Arles.

pictures big power potential is undisputed. Especially so-called iconic images can influence the behaviour of people, says Annette Vowinckel, a historian at the Leibniz-centre for contemporary historical research Potsdam. "With such images, linking a specific event. You are able to structure memory, to act as a reminder and also offer a key for explanation.“

the corona crisis, not "have, as yet, brought forth a picture", it is not surprising Vowinckel. "The needs of the time. In the Vietnam war approximately million pictures were published. It was not until much later, some of the few iconic images to emerge have then.“ This could also happen in the corona, crisis even.

"corpses or dying people, not"

The historian, warns, terror, images of the corona of crisis, need to miss, to raise the awareness of people for the danger of the pandemic. "Corpses or people who are Dying, not you," says Vowinckel and appeals: "it is Precisely the absence of such images could force us to use our minds."

Not with a photo, but with a similar effective means of the New York Times tried, however, on the weekend, your readers shake: it has published on its title page 1000 names of people who died on the Covid-19. The extraordinary action has attracted worldwide attention – and came up completely without the use of images.

In the FOCUS Online/Wochit In the

Date Of Update: 27 May 2020, 06:27