No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
From Aftermath to Peace: Reflections on a Photography of Peace
Abstract
International Relations (IR) literature on the visual construction of the international does not systematically engage with the visualisation of peace. In this article, I make photographic discourses available to IR scholars interested in the visual construction of the international and invite IR scholars to substantialise these discourses based on their specialist knowledge on war, violence, conflict and peace. I engage with aftermath photography by challenging its almost exclusive focus on war and the legacy of violence. Furthermore, I engage with Fred Ritchin's notion of peace photography and Cynthia Weber's attempts at visualising peace. Problematising claims to universality, generalisability and causality, I emphasise that the relation between images and peace is episodic, not causal; that visions of peace, reflecting specific cultural configurations, cannot claim universal validity; and that peace photography has to move beyond aftermath photography's focus on the legacies of the past. Finally, I briefly look at the work of Joel Meyerowitz and Rineke Dijkstra, the one displaying aftermath as a beginning sustaining power, the other photographically accompanying a person's adaptation to a new, more peaceful environment.
... Empirically we illustrate the issues at stake by focusing on both historical and contempo rary photographs of humanitarian crises and their links with peace photography. We de fine peace photography in a broad sense and as articulated by Frank Möller (2017) as photographs that promote the peaceful and nonviolent transformation of conflict. We con sequently focus on humanitarian photography for two reasons. ...
... What, then, is the point of peace photography? Möller (2017;also 2018a) draws attention to this dilemma and suggests a way forward by asserting that peace photography is about photography that promotes-or should promote-the nonviolent and peaceful transformation of con flict. By opposing a deeply entrenched visual bias for violence, peace photography offers alternative ways of depicting the political. ...
... By opposing a deeply entrenched visual bias for violence, peace photography offers alternative ways of depicting the political. It might not always focus on grand, spectacu lar events but can also be a way of highlighting everyday social processes that lead to en during, nonviolent political transformation (Möller 2017;Möller and Shim 2019). As Möller (2018b, 3) relates, "[I]n order to change the rules of [the] world, the image of the world had to be changed as well." ...
Visuality shapes all aspects of peace and conflict. Images influence how we view, under stand, and respond to violence and how we find solutions to entrenched problems. This chapter examines the issues at stake by highlighting the need to take into account the historical dimension of images. It focuses, in particular, on how humanitarian ideals and norms have emerged in response to depictions of violence and suffering. It then explores how understandings of peace are inherently linked to ensuing humanitarian imagery. Images, in this sense, have been and continue to be critical to enabling local and global audiences to see, perceive of, and feel for communities that endure conflict and are work ing toward peaceful solutions. It is in this sense that visuality-in its various manifesta tions-plays an important part of reconciliation, statebuilding, and peace formation.
... A tentative explanation to this choice of social representation emerges with claims that Rio's favelas were born by the end of 19 th century out of violence, through evictions and restrictions, amidst government attempts to "civilize and Europeanize" the city, pushing the poor, black, working class to the surroundings, where they would be invisible to the white elites (Möller 2016). Put differently, the state was never really interested in assisting these slums or their populations. ...
... Thus, I propose scrutinizing the main character in more detail. Surprisingly, by observing the dualism involved in Nascimento's construction, I reject Möller's (2016) remarks that the movies communicate only violence. He argues they depict "unbearable violence not only unbearably violently but also more violently than did earlier films" (2016: 110). ...
This paper starts from the assumption that peace representations in cinema present international politics with a conundrum. Nobody would dispute that peace and war are inherent parts of the world. However, it is hard to think of any film that clearly depicts peace. It is never a main plot, but often forgotten or at best, sidelined. On the other hand, war representations emerge as dominant and powerful narratives on the screen. Why cannot we see equal representations of peace in pop culture? Which impacts does the lack of peace representations have on shaping our understanding of reality? Starting from the Foucaultian idea of “truth”, an analysis of Brazilian blockbuster Elite Squad suggests that peace can be found if shifting analysis from high-end, state-centric actors to peripheral ones. Moreover, it demonstrates that hidden representations of peace might contribute to maintain a certain balance of power and hinder social development.
... The positive effects of participatory arts are not a given, and challenges and blockages exist. 25 We are interested in 'the conditions of possibility for peace photography' 26 and the constraints that exist around how photography can meaningfully contribute to peace. We argue that in communities living with ongoing violence, photography can carve out an in-between space where subtle forms of civil resistance can emerge which allow for citizens to challenge violence and pursue peace whilst also protecting themselves. ...
Arts-based peacebuilding has gained attention, but evidence and research of its impact is fragmented and, in particular, the relationship between photography and peace is underexplored. This article examines photovoice as a tool for supporting everyday and community peace in conflict-affected communities. It identifies four ways that everyday peace indicator photovoice projects in Colombia bolstered community peace: by engendering healing, building territorial identity, enabling intergenerational dialogue, and catalysing action. These impacts emerged as photovoice built on enabling factors, extending existing community peacebuilding capacities, concerns and interventions. Reflecting on the constraints and tensions around working with photography in security-sensitive environments, we propose that participatory photography makes up a vital component of the peace photography genre. We argue that the careful, strategic harnessing of photovoice, and the visualisation of everyday peace, creates opportunities for raising the voices of conflict-affected communities, building shared imaginaries and nurturing dialogue, healing and action.
... Die IB sind angesichts der aktuellen umwelt-, gesundheits-und sicherheitspolitischen Herausforderungen von teilweise sehr grausamen, geradezu apokalyptischen Bildern dominiert. Aber auch der Frieden und die Hoffnung der Menschen verlangen nach Visualisierung und Sichtbarkeit, haben es aber ungleich schwerer in der Konkurrenz um mediale Aufmerksamkeit (Engelkamp et al. 2020;Heck 2020;Möller 2008Möller , 2017Möller und Shim 2019). Die interdisziplinäre Auseinandersetzung mit den damit verbundenen praktischen und ethischen Fragen, wie "gute" Bilder gemacht werden können und was sie zeigen sollen, steht erst noch am Anfang. ...
Der Beitrag formuliert eine interpretative Methode der Visuelle Metaphernanalyse (VMA). Er argumentiert, dass Metaphern die Lücke zwischen Text und visuellen Repräsentation füllen, in dem sie als linguistisches Mittel verstanden werden können welches von Natur aus Text kognitiv visualisiert. Metaphern sind Bilder. Bezugnehmend auf Erkenntnisse der kognitiven Linguistik stellt dieses Kapitel die ‚Visuelle Metaphernanalyse‘ als eine Methode zur Untersuchung eines Prozesses doppelter Visualisierung in Filmen vor. Auf der ersten Ebene beinhaltet dies die Veranschaulichung von Phänomenen im Film selbst – die Bilder, die wir auf dem Bildschirm sehen. Dies kann verglichen werden mit dem, was in der Literatur als metaphorischer Ausdruck bezeichnet wird. Auf der zweiten Ebene umfasst dies die Visualisierung des zugrundeliegenden metaphorischen Themas selbst. Diese konzeptionellen Metaphern sind nicht notwendigerweise eindeutig, aber wichtig, um das in der Erzählung des Films offengelegte Narrativ zu verstehen. Um die vorgeschlagene Methode zu illustrieren untersucht das Kapitel Metaphern für Frieden in dem Spielfilm Mango Dreams, der eine Geschichte des Überwindens schmerzlicher Erinnerungen an Trennung und Leid infolge der Teilung Indiens und Pakistans erzählt. Hierbei werden drei fundamentale Friedensmetaphern identifiziert, welche das Phänomen konzeptuell als HEIMAT, REISE und BRÜCKE bezeichnen. Die Analyse zeigt, dass im Gegensatz zu dem größten Teil der Forschung über Visualisierungen von Frieden, welche sich überwiegend auf die Darstellung von negativem Frieden fokussiert, eine ganzheitlichere Konzeptualisierung von Frieden im Film durch das Einbeziehen von visuellen Metaphern möglich ist.
... 77 As M€ oller notes, photojournalists may depict peace negatively through its absence; they show war and violence realistically -within the limits of the genre -in order to visualize the need for peace; or they intervene photographically in violent situations so that others can intervene more efficiently. 78 In practice, however, photojournalists are often constrained by the media environment, including economic concerns and gatekeeping by editors as illuminated by these two quotes: "We [photographers] tell ourselves we're against war, but photo editors and photo competitions tend to reward violence. War photography may be creating an attraction to violence." ...
... As Frank Moeller puts it, peace is a difficult subject for visuals as it constitutes a nonevent-it is mainly defined through the absence of violence. 20 It gets even harder if we differentiate between negative peace as the absence of direct physical violence and positive peace as the absence of structural violence. 21 How can we display the latter without referring to violence in the first place? ...
Visuals can be effective tools for educating an audience about peacebuilding and the need to engage with a nation's violent past. However, research on visuality has pointed to the ambivalence visuals can develop through audiencing and the dominant political discourse. Building on this, this article argues that ambivalence can also occur between narratives by different media although the same institution produced them, and that such inherent contradictions can limit the institution's effectiveness. The analysis centers upon a case study of the East Timorese Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) that compares the commission's documentary dalan ba dame (“road to peace”) with its final report about peace and the human rights violations committed in the territory between 1975 and 1999. While the commission's final report stresses the individual responsibility of members of the Indonesian military and formulates the need for an institution‐based liberal peace, the documentary communicates the message that all parties to the conflict are guilty of committing crimes and that peace has already been created, mitigating the need to further engage with the violent past. The analysis identifies the media's different formats and their different agendas as reasons for the creation of these contradicting messages. Based on an assessment of the dissemination of both media and their reception within the political discourse in Timor‐Leste, the implications of these conflicting narratives for educating an international audience are discussed. Since the final report is difficult to access due to its length and its legal language, the documentary remains the more accessible medium to educate an international audience about the nation's violent past. However, due to the narrative it conveys, the documentary's ability to mobilize an international audience is limited. Thus, the article argues for considering three aspects when designing visuals for peace education: the intermediality of visuals with other media and its potential effects concerning the communication of a specific message, the reception of the message by the target audience, and the reception of the message by broader audiences when the visual is distributed online.
In this chapter, we sketch different navigational approaches to Bosnia: Uncertain Paths to Peace. We are not interested in identifying the best path but, rather, in showing that different approaches connect us differently to the website and that which it represents—post-siege Sarajevo—thus diversifying our experience with both the website and the city. We perform a weak form of auto-ethnography and auto-navigation with recourse to our research notes. We add theoretical thoughts to our personal reflections, assuming that researchers are always influenced by the conceptual and theoretical baggage they carry with them. Interacting with images is always a combination of personal reflection and learned knowledge. We will share with our readers our own personal experience when navigating the website (without claiming that our experiences are identical with the original users’ experiences back in 1996) and (self-)critically explore what we have learned about both the website and the preconceptions we brought with us to the navigation.
During and after the wars in the former Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina served as a laboratory for the development of new photographic approaches to war, genocide, overall violence and mass civilian suffering. These new approaches were inspired by the recognition that traditional photojournalistic work could not stop the violence although it managed to raise international awareness and produce memorable photographs. The wars in ex-Yugoslavia revealed the simplicity of the conventional linkage between photographic documentation, awareness-raising and political responses that had informed photojournalism since its inception. In this chapter, we develop a typology of the new photographies emerging in Bosnia (and elsewhere) at that time: aftermath photography, forensic photography, participatory photography and post-conflict/peace photography. It is this visual environment within and beyond which Fred Ritchin and Gilles Peress developed their project Bosnia: Uncertain Paths to Peace (see Part III). It is this visual environment within which IR and peace and conflict studies, too, try to make sense of what happened in Bosnia.
In this article, we suggest incorporating visual images into peace education through interactive peace imagery (IPI). We will show, and illustrate with examples from our work, that interactive teaching creates a space for students to reflect upon their socializations, including visual ones, without which image interpretation cannot be fully explained. We begin by exploring photojournalism as a media that, while providing raw material for peace education, does not serve as a model for image interpretation. Emphasizing images’ interpretive openness, we suggest an alternative approach (IPI) that unearths, (re)vitalizes, and capitalizes on the plurality of meanings images carry with them. We focus on digitization and active interaction (seeing – changing – sharing) in a non-hierarchic teaching environment. In IPI, the classroom becomes a network: students interactively engage with visual images by regarding existing images, elaborating on them, changing them, sharing the changed images with their fellow students, or producing original images. Students become involved in the production process and their responsibility for both the image and the knowledge claims attached to it increases. Critical reflections on the suggested procedure in terms of quantity, time, authority, and violence conclude the paper.
During and after the wars in ex-Yugoslavia, Bosnia was a laboratory for new photographic approaches to war, violence and civilian suffering. Among these approaches, Fred Ritchin and Gilles Peress’s online photo essay, Bosnia: Uncertain Paths to Peace (1996), emphasized interpretive openness, plurality of meaning, narrative non-linearity and audience interaction, thus redefining as merits what photojournalism had formerly regarded as liabilities. The project convincingly represented the ongoing conflict’s multilayeredness and the vicissitudes of the transition to peace: on a day-to-day level, ambivalence ruled and alliances shifted; chaos, confusion and unpredictability prevailed. The project’s users experience the conflict’s messiness through the website’s overall organization which inhibits easy orientation, thus reproducing the conflict’s disorder. In the grids, in particular, non-sequitur panel-to-panel transitions illustrate the conflict’s lack of sense as it is traditionally understood. The project is an important precursor to current war photography, aiming to acknowledge the messiness of violent conflict rather than reducing it to simple but misleading narratives.
Bilder und Dokumentationen menschlichen Leids, seien es Massaker, Hunger, Vertreibung oder die Zerstörung ganzer Dörfer und Städte sind wiederkehrende Begleiterscheinungen von Bürgerkriegen und internationalen Gewaltkonflikten. Diese Tatsache wurde zumindest in Teilen der Disziplin der Internationalen Beziehungen (IB) schon vor vielen Jahren anerkannt (Campbell 2003b, 2007; Hoskins und O’Loughlin 2010; Kennedy 2008). Visuelle Repräsentationen prägen nicht nur die kollektiv geteilten Vorstellungen von Krieg und dessen Folgen, sondern vermitteln oftmals darüber hinausweisende, politisch und normativ aufgeladene Narrative über Täter und Opfer eines Konflikts.
In this paper, we engage with IR's recently rediscovered interest in peace and connect it with the visual turn in international relations. We move the field's focus on representations of war to representations of peace and develop the concept of peace photography. We suggest both understanding photography as a social agent promoting visions of peace and incorporating analysis of peace photography into IR's emerging agenda on peace. Our illustrative examples show that it is insufficient to think about and analyze visual images only in connection with representations of large-scale violence and interstate war. In contrast, we provide an alternative approach which aims to broaden our understanding of (the study of) peace in IR. First, we explore a positive conception of peace at the individual and everyday level of analysis. Second, we advocate methodological pluralism by examining different analytical sites of peace photography. Third, we concentrate on the potentialities of peace photography in Colombia and Brazil-notorious spaces of everyday violence. We argue that the analytical perspectives developed in this paper have also relevance beyond our examples: if peace photography can be found here, than it can also be found elsewhere. Put differently, everyday visions of peace constitute particular instances of the international.
The debate about the use of specific methods of analysing visual material has gained great momentum in International Relations (IR). This paper suggests an interpretive method that has received little attention: visual metaphor analysis. While metaphor analysis has a been frequently used discourse analytical method in IR, little attention has been given to study visual metaphors. Taking on insights from cognitive linguistics, this paper introduces visual metaphor analysis to examine a process of double visualisation in film. On the first level, this includes the visualisation of phenomena in
the film itself, the pictures we see on screen. This can be likened to what in the literature is commonly referred to as metaphorical expressions. On the second level, this also includes the visualisation of the underlying metaphorical theme itself. Such conceptual metaphors are not necessarily explicit but necessary to understand the narrative of the story unfolded in the film.
To develop a method of visual metaphor analysis, this chapter examines metaphors of peace in the independent feature film Mango Dreams, which narrates a story of overcoming painful memories of separation and suffering in the wake of the partition between India and Pakistan. The chapter is structured as follows: the first part discusses research on the visualisation of peace and conflict. The second part articulates a method of visual metaphor analysis combining insights from cognitive linguistics and film studies. Part three applies the method to the film Mango Dreams drawing out three fundamental metaphors of peace which constitute the phenomenon conceptually as HOME, JOURNEY and BRIDGE. The analysis shows that a more holistic conceptualisation of peace in film is possible through the engagement of visual metaphors.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.