Jaar’s poignant work, Six Seconds, deals evocatively with the aftermath and emotional turmoil of genocide. The young girl in the photograph had lost her entire family in the mass killings in Rwanda in the mid 1990s. Unable to speak, she simply walked away when Jaar tried to approach her. The shot is blurry due to her moving away from the artist. Six seconds is how long Jaar’s encounter with her lasted. In previous discussions Jaar has noted the impossibility of accurately representing another’s life. The story or image that an artist tries to convey is always "out of focus".
