John Hunting is currently working on a manuscript entitled Levinas and the Photographic. A Levinasian approach to photographic media is examined on three fronts; first regarding photographic and video portraiture, most notably by the artists Beat Streuli, Rineke Dijkstra and Thomas Struth, second regarding the films of Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, and third in a consideration of ‘media witnessing’. Taking video testimonials of the Holocaust as its point of departure, it is argued that contemporary photographic media expose ad hoc communities of viewers to the vulnerabilities of others, not only inviting but commanding and contesting our attention. Impacting ethics, aesthetics, photographic arts and media studies, a Levinasian approach to the photographic configures a broad research interest in terms of which the ethics of visual communication is thought anew.

The project is introduced in “Levinas and the Photographic,” (2016) a soon to be published article in the journal Philosophy and Photography.

Education

• Ph.D. Communications McGill University, 2006
• B.F.A. Concordia University, 1990
• M.A. Philosophy, The University of Ottawa, 1988