The violence of the image

Images are becoming increasingly recognized as powerful components of International Relations (IR). Since the invention of the Kodak in the late nineteenth century, photographs have framed our understanding of conflict and the suffering of distant others. The violence of the image, edited by Liam Kennedy and Caitlin Patrick, is an excellent collection of essays which shows that the symbiotic relationship between photography and warfare has changed over time, blurring the boundaries between the image and the audience as witness. The edited volume examines photography and conflict in three stages. First, in part one, the contributions examine how the photograph is politicized in relation to conflict. Each chapter takes a close visual reading of images of conflict and includes Christina Twomey's analysis of the Kodak photographs from the Congo (chapter one), Liam Kennedy's examination of images from the Vietnam War (chapter two), Justin Carville's engagement with photojournalism during Bloody Sunday (chapter three) and Joseph McGonagle's examination of images from the Algerian Civil War (chapter four). Key to these is the power of the photograph to challenge dominant state discourses of what constitutes ‘truth’, particularly in relation to violence against the body politic. For instance, in her account of the humanitarian crusade against abuses suffered by the Congolese under King Leopold of Belgium, Twomey illustrates how photographs of mutilation and brutality emerged alongside Leopold's own photographs of the Congo which depicted modernity and progress. Twomey's standout chapter also points to an anachronism in contemporary examinations of the campaign regarding the retrospective application of the term ‘crimes against humanity’. She argues that the diversity of terms used to express the horror of the abuse, such as ‘crime against civilization’, ‘fiendish cruelty’ and ‘grim tragedy’ (p. 25) among others, indicates there was not an agreed ‘crimes against humanity’ discourse as the literature suggests

Anachronism · Art · Art history · Modernity · Photography · Photojournalism · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Reading (process · Relation (database · Visual arts · Witness · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · History of Science and Medicine · Law

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