When John Steinbeck visited the Soviet Union in 1947, he did so for the purpose of “honest reporting,” “neither critical nor favorable,” merely “set[ting] down what we saw and heard …” With him traveled Robert Capa, one of the most famous photographers of the time – a photographer usually designated a “war photographer.” Asked by the Soviet authorities why he wanted Capa to travel with him – after all, there were “lots of cameramen in the Soviet Union” – Steinbeck replied: “But you have no Capas.”
We are delighted to announce that imageandpeace.com has established a partnership with Archivo Platform.
Founded in 2012 by Ana Catarina Pinho, “Archivo is an independent research platform dedicated to reflecting on photography and visual culture through research, editorial and curatorial activities. Archivo defines itself through a series of annual projects developed through an interdisciplinary research network that contributes to traverse different disciplines and foster theoretical, practical and critical interventions, creating links between scholarship, artistic and cultural practices.”
War has different temporalities. There is the actual war – the execution of organized large-scale physical force – and there is its aftermath. Both temporalities are explored in photography in abundance, capturing visually what war looks like and what remains of it.
There is a third temporality, however, also a “signature of violence” (Manaugh 2020: 19), yet one that does not appear prominently in photography. This temporality references war’s preparations, its “spatial prerequisites” (Manaugh 2020: 11): the locations, buildings and sites where war is being prepared for, where armies train, where weapons systems are developed and constructed, and where the effects of warfare are researched. Without this dimension, the visualization of war remains incomplete.
2020 is coming to an end. This has certainly been an exceptional year. Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, imageandpeace.com was launched during this year’s summer.
In Holidays in the Danger Zone: Entanglements of War and Tourism (2016), Debbie Lisle analyzes “dark” or “political tourism,” i.e. tourism encountering the aftermath of violent conflict. Lisle’s book elucidates what encounters of war and tourism looked like indifferent historical constellations (for example, the British Empire, post-World War II, bipolarity, and the “War on Terror”). It shows that these encounters are historically contingent, differing across space and over time, and that very often “counterconducts” can be found – social practices ignoring or challenging the hierarchical order within which they operate and which they are supposed to confirm.
We are pleased to share the Call for Papers for the biennial conference of the European Peace Research Association in August 2021. Next year’s conference themed Empowering Peace: The role of civil society in peacebuilding and conflict transformation will take place at Tampere University, Finland.
Imageandpeace is delighted to present the photographic essay “Between Violence and Peace” by Shihab Chowdhury. The artwork – eleven photographs and explanatory text – engages with a subject – the Finnish Civil War – that is still capable of dividing opinion in Finland more than 100 years after it took place.
“What is peace? You can’t make peace if you know nothing about it.” – Mira Sidawi in Imagine
Many violent conflicts have been covered by photographers, and many have been forgotten again. Our attention span is staggeringly short. Therefore, it is a highly interesting endeavour to re-visit well-known scenes of conflict and to explore today’s situation. And for us, who are exploring and searching for visions of peace, it is even more interesting to see the current situation through the camera lenses of photographers who have already reported about a conflict during the peak of violence. This is the concept behind Imagine: Reflections on Peace, a volume comprised of both photo and written essays.
Imageandpeace.com warmly welcomes Alexander Spencer among our Friends and Supporters.
(c) OVGU Magdeburg
Alexander Spencer holds the Chair of International Relations at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg. His research focuses on constructivist approaches to peace and conflict, the role of cultural narratives and (visual) metaphors in international politics, discourse analytical methods and the social construction of policy failure.
He has published on these issues in a number of journals including European Journal of International Relations; Journal of European Public Policy, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Peace and Change; Security Dialogue, International Studies Perspectives, Foreign Policy Analysis and Journal of International Relations and Development.
His most recent research monograph titled “Romantic Narratives in International Politics. Pirates, Rebels and Mercenaries” was published with Manchester University Press in 2016.
Imageandpeace.com warmly welcomes Oliver Richmond among our Friends and Supporters.
(c) The University of Manchester
Oliver Richmond is a professor of international relations and peace and conflict studies at the University of Manchester. His primary area of expertise is in peace and conflict theory, and in particular its inter-linkages with IR theory. He is currently working on a book entitled Peace in the 21st Century. This study examines the evolution of the different strategies for maintaining international order in contemporary history and engages with new questions about peace and war raised in the digital era.
He is also leading on a major research project on the ‘Art of Peace’ about community devised arts based peacebuilding.
His previous work was on peace formation and its relation to state formation, statebuilding, and peacebuilding.
This area of interest grew out of his work on local forms of critical agency and resistance, and their role in constructing hybrid or post-liberal forms of peace and states, as well as earlier conflict resolution and conflict management debates in IR, including international mediation, peacekeeping, peacebuilding, and state formation debates.
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