What Stays After the Shutter Closes

Brent Stirton photographs things that are supposed to stay unseen. His documentary work—mountain gorillas shot by militias in the Congo, rhino poaching operations, the aftermath of cholera outbreaks, factory farms across three continents—doesn’t aestheticize suffering so much as refuse to look away from it. "Rotting Souls" fits the register exactly: an unflinching series about people and places the rest of the frame has already abandoned. His images demand something from the viewer. That’s the whole point.