January 6, 2008
Review of photography books in Print
(Photograph courtesy Print)
My review of several books of photographs of life under war-torn or repressive regimes, including images from North Korea and Darfur, is in the February issue of Print magazine, on newsstands now. The editors have also published the article online. Here is the beginning:
Since the American Civil War, photography has played a central role in crafting narratives about conflicts and disasters, whether domestic or international, natural or man-made. As photographic technology has changed, so has our shrewdness in interpreting these documents, allowing for a seemingly limitless range of interactions among photographers, subjects, photographs, and viewers. To browse a stack of photo books containing images of repressively choreographed social life, famine, and war—in this instance, in North Korea, the Darfur region of western Sudan, and the former Yugoslavia, respectively—is to travel down myriad avenues of interpretation. Each book and every page requires a complicated recalibration of expectation and response.
To read the rest, click here.