{"id":141626,"date":"2020-01-03T09:00:42","date_gmt":"2020-01-03T14:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=141626"},"modified":"2022-08-22T12:24:00","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T16:24:00","slug":"the-empty-room-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2020\/01\/03\/the-empty-room-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Empty Room"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>We\u2019re away until January 6, but we\u2019re reposting some of our favorite pieces from 2019. Enjoy your holiday!<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/fe36.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-135637\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/fe36-1024x792.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"792\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/fe36-1024x792.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/fe36-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/fe36-768x594.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/fe36.jpg 2045w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The more empty the photograph, the more it implies horror. The void that dominates an empty photograph is the site of past human activity. It presents itself as a hole in the middle of the picture. The beds, tables, chairs, lamps are not the subject; they are the boundary. Some empty images tease the eye, suggesting clues that may dissolve upon closer examination. More often the scene is as near to a blank canvas as it can be without fading into nothingness. But then we, as habituated viewers, tend to brush a dramatic gloss upon such pictures. What we see cannot be as perfectly banal as it seems. The lighting and composition awaken unconscious memories of crime-scene photos; the drama comes from what is missing. It\u2019s a bit like Sherlock Holmes\u2019s dog who did not bark. What is missing is an apparent reason for the picture to have been taken.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/18\/the-empty-room\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Read more &gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lucy Sante on the uncanny disturbance of the crime-scene photograph.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":999,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60329],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-2019"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Empty Room by Lucy Sante<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Luc Sante on the uncanny disturbance of the crime-scene photograph.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2020\/01\/03\/the-empty-room-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Empty Room by Lucy Sante\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"January 3, 2020 \u2013 Lucy Sante on the uncanny disturbance of the crime-scene photograph.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2020\/01\/03\/the-empty-room-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-03T14:00:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" 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