Invisible War - BJP August 2014

I'm not quite sure how I feel about an article called Invisible War in the August 2014 issue of BJP.  The article, written by Laurence Butet-Roch, describes a body of work by photographer Christoph Bangert.  Entitled "War Porn", Bangert has put together a series of shocking, explicit, gruesome, and real images of war, shot over a ten-year period in conflict zones.

What is interesting is the decision to publish and why Bangert felt that they needed to be seen: "When you have all this unpublished material dormant on your hard drive, you get angry; you feel like you have failed in your mission, which is not only to take photographs, but also to show them" (Bangert quoted Butet-Roch, 2014, p64).  This implies that taking the photograph (or in fact capturing the "story") is only half the job.  If photographs are not seen, the exercise is pointless.  In this case, Bangert intended to provoke discussion about how images of horrific events are framed.  I think that a lot of people will look at these images published in BJP, but I wonder how many will go on to purchase the book, so from that perspective, is the context in which they are seen right?  Perhaps governments and heads of state should be forced to see wall-size reproductions in an exhibition....This said, the first edition of War Porn is already sold out. 

The article goes on to reference Susan Sontag and her work "Regarding the Pain of Others" and comments on her reactions to photographs of atrocities and whether they inspire peace, provoke revenge or simply raise awareness.  Bangert's reaction is simply that his images will not prevent further violence, but, if people cannot even look at the images, then we can't begin to think about preventing war, and that if you don't look at the pictures, then you simply don't care.

Thinking about my own reaction, I am amazed by war photography; not in a voyeuristic way, but in the ability of the photographer to carry out their work under such conditions - both from an emotional point of view and the issue of personal safety.  I previously wrote about Don McCullin in my DPP blog, and remember feeling stunned that he could continue his work, and like Bangert produce photographs that are technically competent (read brilliant!) and also creative and visually compelling, whilst the atrocity is happening around them.  In this case, Bangert has put together a collection of work that for a lot of people will be too gruesome to look at.  I can look at it, and I am beyond appalled that human beings can commit these atrocities and harm each other to such an extent, but I don't know if I would be able to retain sufficient composure to be actually able to deliver something like this myself.


Reference List

Butet-Roch, L. (2014) Invisible War. British Journal of Photography 161 (7827), pp.62-65