The Violence of Colonial Photography

"The subject matter of this important book is the image. It’s about photography, the invention of the camera, and where the camera went initially, towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. The author captures that moment whereby travellers—whether they were colonial administrators, journalists, voyeurs or anybody who could get hold of a camera—and what they did in the context of a colonial situation. It is not about photography in general; it’s about photography in the specific context of the colonial encounter between colonial powers—their military, officers, soldiers, travellers, and journalists—and local communities in the process of being colonised, possibly terrorised, repressed, mutilated, and killed. There are horrific images that were reproduced. The book delves in greater detail into how these images were circulating towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century in the metropolis, in the centres where colonialism was at its height, mainly in Britain and France. The author shows awareness of the debates about photography. For example, he relies on the work of important writers such as Susan Sontag , who theorises the image and photography. He also looks at the ethical dilemmas for him as a writer and for anybody reproducing images that are horrific. We are used to seeing, on our television screens, a warning that some of the images might be violent, and we have put in place certain criteria for reproducing images of mutilated bodies or horrific scenes of death and destruction. But at the time of these early photographs, such restrictions were not in place and a lot of horrific images were circulated. In fact, some of them became postcards. It is very troubling. Foliard asks the question: even in studying this photography, as researchers, do we have the right to circulate them? Do we make them more popular and circulate them to wider audiences, or study them without reproducing them? I don’t want to tell the reader what the answers are. They will have to read the book to discover how these ethical dilemmas unfold in any research on photography and the circulation of images of cruelty and violence. There is one argument that says we can reproduce if there is an ultimate good reason. We all remember the famous image during the Vietnam War of that girl (Kim Phúc) against the horrific background of the war and how that image drew attention to the atrocities of war. But there are also images that move towards the pornography of violence. Do we have an ethical carte blanche to reproduce them? This book deals with these issues, at this particular historical moment when the encounter between the colonising powers Britain and France collided with the sensibilities of the native population, and the documentation of the violence that took place during years of colonial rule. It’s very difficult to capture public opinion at the time. From his book, we know that the images did circulate. He reproduces one of these images on the cover. He opted to reproduce the images, which are in black and white, and you can see them throughout the book. He justifies that by looking at the debate and explaining why he made that decision."