The Violence of the Image: Photography and International Conflict

Photography has visualized international relations and conflicts from the midnineteenth century onwards and continues to be an important medium in framing the worlds of distant, suffering others. Although photojournalism has been challenged in recent decades, claims that it is dead are premature. The Violence of the Image examines the roles of image producers and the functions of photographic imagery in the documentation of wars, violent conflicts and human rights issues; tackling controversial ideas such as 'witnessing', the making of appeals based on displays of human suffering and the much-cited concept of 'compassion fatigue'. In the twenty-first century, the advent of digital photography, camera phones and socialmedia platforms has altered the relationship between photographers, the medium and the audience- as well as contributing to an ongoing blurring of the boundaries between news and entertainment and professional and amateur journalism. The Violence of the Image explores how new vernacular and artistic modes of photographic production articulate international friction.This innovative, timely book makes a major contribution to discussions about the power of the image in conflict.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations viiContributors xiiIntroduction: The Violence of the Image – Liam Kennedyand Caitlin Patrick 1Part I: Framing Civil and (Post-)Colonial Conflict 71 The Incorruptible Kodak: Photography, Human Rightsand the Congo Campaign – Christina Twomey 92 ‘Follow the Americans’: Philip Jones Griffiths’s VietnamWar Trilogy – Liam Kennedy 343 The Violence of the Image: Conflict and Post-ConflictPhotography in Northern Ireland – Justin Carville 604 Dispelling the Myth of Invisibility: Photography and theAlgerian Civil War – Joseph McGonagle 78Part II: Politics and Photographic Ethics at the Turn of theTwentieth Century 955 The Myth of Compassion Fatigue – David Campbell 976 Infra-Destructure – Ariella Azoulay 1257 Watching War Evolve: Photojournalism and New Formsof Violence – Robert Hariman 139Part III: The ‘Unstable’ Image: Photography as Evidence andAmbivalence 1658 Photo-Reportage of the Libyan Conflict – Stuart Allan 167vi THE VIOLENCE OF THE IMAGE9 Witnessing Precarity: Photojournalism, Women’s/Human/Rights and the War in Afghanistan – Wendy Kozol 19310 The Forensic Turn: Bearing Witness and the ‘Thingness’of the Photograph – Paul Lowe 21111 Ruins and Traces: Exhibiting Conflict in Guy Tillim’sLeopold and Mobutu – Caitlin Patrick 235Select Bibliography 256Index 274