Violence in War Photography & The New Aesthetic Movement

Violence in War Photography and

The New Aesthetic Movement

Meera Badran

Architecture, 2019 Tutor: Amica Dall Word Count: 10,803 1

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In memory of my uncle, Mohammad Khalil A Palestinian refugee who fought to raise a voice for all those in need.

1954 - 2018

With Thanks to Amica Dall

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C ON TENT S

I ntro du c t io n: Ph o tography & The Tr u th I mm un it y to Vio le nce Ae sth etic is ed Vio l en ce M et ho do lo g y

H is to r y o f War P ho to g raphy

The Aesthe tici sat io n s: Shell-Shocked US Marine, Don McCullin Rwandan Refugee Camp of Benako, SebastiĂŁo Salgado The Enclave, Richard Mosse The Music Over the Ruins of Aleppo, Joseph Eid

Con clu sion

Figure List Bibliography Further Reading Appendix

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IN TROD UCT IO N

Throughout this paper, I will be exploring the aestheticisation of violence, particularly in comparison to war photography, in the past and present. This exploration looks at the constant struggle that photojournalists face in raising awareness to the world’s biggest conflicts, in a society that is constantly growing immune to the violent image.

This will be done through assessing the vanishing boundary between war photography and art, and comparing the most powerful photographs with their influences from fine art and film. These comparisons look to understand the techniques developed over the history of documentary photography, and the way in which photography methodologically renews itself overtime. This paper will explore the different methods and the technological advancements embraced by photojournalists, as they experiment with different modes of representation to hold the attention and commiseration of society.

This paper expresses the urgency and the absolute need for the photograph to hold the power it once held, especially in a world where everything has become visible. With the refugee crisis we are facing today, and the wars that are harming millions of innocent people, I hope to raise awareness that conflicts such as the Syrian War remain ongoing. There is a great need for the world to sympathise with these victims in order to bring them justice, peace and safety. And I believe, the way to do this is through the power of the photograph.

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PH OTOG RA P HY & T H E TRUTH

Before beginning, it is important to understand the history of a photograph in relation to its truth, and the concept of the aestheticised image.

At the beginning of the photographic revolution, and the invention of the daguerreotype in 1839, photographs had to be composed, positioned and framed due to their long exposure time. Although often a recreated scenario, or a clamped down body, these photographs were considered to be ‘truthful’*, due to their realism, and true-to-life representation, which in a world of romanticist paintings, had never been seen before. An example of this recreation is the famous photographs by Roger Fenton during the Crimean War of 1855 (Fig 1 and Fig 1.1). Showing the before and after shots, this photograph was deliberately staged and dramatised in attempt to recreate a true expression of what was experienced. Here, Fenton understands that the effects and emotions felt in the midst of war could not be replicated in a visual and 2D dimension. Therefore, through altering the scenario, he attempts to embody the experience better, and hence, more truthfully.

With cameras becoming more accessible, emancipating from the tripod, and exposure time being reduced to fractions of a second, the photograph started to hold the power of capturing any physical matter that the eye could see. With this, came the rise of different form of ‘truthful’** photography. These photographs weren’t composed, edited or recreated, but instead captured a moment of time in action. They discredited photographs such as Fentons, for their untruthfulness and alteration.

The photographs role was only to capture the most authentic and realistic version of the truth. Art critic John Berger defined photography in the 1980’s as ‘being the most transparent medium, offering direct access to the real…’1 This quote, which came in the wake of the Vietnam War, highlights the role of the photograph in a state that we are still familiar with today.

This was an extremely important advancement in the history of photography, as a photograph became evidence to the brutality of war, and the cruel actions of humankind that had never been seen before. As stated

1 John Berger. About Looking. (London: Bloomsbury, 1980) p.52

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by photojournalist Wallace Terry, who was stationed in Vietnam, ‘No one would believe it if they didn’t see it, because what does it say about our humanity?’2.

It is within this state of its truthfulness that the photograph has caused the highest level of controversy, as emphasised in both the Vietnam war and the War on Terror.

IM M UNIT Y TO VIOL E N CE

However, our views on the photograph has changed.

‘Not to be pained by these pictures, not to recoil from them, not to strive to abolish what causes this havoc... our failure is one of imagination, of empathy: we have failed to hold this reality in mind’3 This quote from Virginia Woolf’s Three Guineas, written as early as 1938, puts into perspective our lack of sympathy towards situations that are not directly affecting us.

Photographs that we see in newspapers and magazines stand in a frame, capturing a distant reality that is not our own, a reality that we have not experienced, and a reality we don’t attempt to imagine, resulting in a lack of empathy worldwide for the wars taking place around the world.

Now, 81 years later, this has exacerbated. The constant and repeated overexposure to photographs of violence in our society today has further shrivelled all sympathy towards the issue. Through social media, the internet and television, we are being bombarded with images of dying children, drowning refugees, and falling cities. While our society is by far the most exposed to these human rights violations, we are the ones who are the least affected by it. As seen when constantly repeating a word out loud, it begins to lose meaning, the visual repetition of violence has enabled its reality and realism to escape us, taking our pity, compassion, and humanity with it. * Truthful: (of artistic or literary representation) Characterised by accuracy or realism; true to life. ** Truthful: Images that are not composed or edited. Raw. In the moment.

2 Wallace Terry, interview in Vietnam: The Camera at War dir. by David Upshal (BBC2, 1995).

3 Virgina Woolf. Three Guineas. (London: Hogarth Press, 1938)

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Fig. 1 - The Valley of the Shadow of the Death, Roger Fenton, 1855

Fig. 1.1 - The Valley of the Shadow of the Death, Roger Fenton, 1855

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Susan Sontag, a writer and political activist, who has influenced many modern theorists and thinkers on this topic, is seen to reiterate Woolf’s ideal 65 years later, explaining the modern cause of our insensibility: The Television.

She argues: The whole point of the television is that one can switch between channels, that it is normal to switch channels, to become restless and bored. Consumers droop. They need to be stimulated, jumpstarted, again and again. Content is no more than one of these stimulants.4 She continues: A more reflective engagement with content would require a certain intensity of awareness - just what is weakened by the expectations brought to images disseminated by the media, whose leaching out of content contributes most to the deadening of feeling.5 Here, she explains the means in which a photograph has lost its credibility.

As a society, we now question a photographs authenticity, it’s bias and truthfulness. The ‘shock-factor’ (the horror that is made vivid in order to force people to take in the outrageousness and the insanity of war)6 of a photograph no longer seeps into our consciousness or makes us question the ethics of this reality.

This paper asserts that the state of documentary photography is no longer appealing to us as viewers, as it fails to demand urgency and attention, and therefore fails to create empathy to the issues at hand, drowning the voices of those in need. Thus, I question, how can a photograph be re-stimulated, in order to demand the attention of a viewer and their awareness? How can a photograph make its audience really consider the violent happenings of the world today? Can a photograph make its viewers feel very strongly towards the suffering subjects that it portrays, to an extent where its

4 Susan Sontag. Regarding the Pain of Others. (London: Penguin Books, 2003) p.94 - 95 5 ibid, p.95 6 ibid, p.12

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audience start to take a stance against the human rights violations happening in a distant reality?

I believe that the photograph holds this power. As the aesthetic movement had rejuvenated Art and Architecture in the past, the aestheticisation of violence in photography can make the viewer feel ethically compromised, and therefore assert their position on the situation at hand.

AE S T H E T ICISE D V IOL E N CE

The concept of aestheticism is one that runs parallel with the changing state of the photograph. The Aesthetic Movement which started in the late 1850’s, mainly embraced by poets, painters and designers, looked to focus on the idea of beauty that could be appreciated for its decorative existence and its ability to capture attention and awe7.

This movement is foundational to this dissertation as it rose in reaction and rebellion to its immediate past. A past that was dominated with seriousminded Gothic architects and Victorian attitudes to art and literature, followed by the ugliness of the Industrial Age8. This made society cry for a beauty that they were deprived of. Writer Robin Spencer explains this connection: ‘Reactions and movements do not occur in a vacuum or spring up overnight, and the Aesthetic Movement is no exception, for it’s origins are deeply embedded in mid-nineteenth-century attitudes to art and its role in society’.9 This paper explores the concept of the aesthetic movement and looks at its venture into war photography in recent years. Here, photojournalists have began to aestheticise their photographs, as a reaction to war photography’s violent and unsuccessful methods to attract attention and assert empathy.

7 Robin Spencer. The Aesthetic Movement (London: Studio Vista, 1972) p. 10 8 ‘An Introduction to the Aesthetic Movement’ Victoria and Albert Museum https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/an-introduction-to-

the-aesthetic-movement [Accessed 15th April 2019] 9 Spencer, p. 10

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Aestheticism will be referred to not only as a focus on beauty, but further on photographers and artists attempts to aestheticise a scenario to capture attention. If a photographer is to alter a composition from its existing state (or edit it, or present it in a certain way) for the purpose of creating sublimity and generating awe, then it is aestheticised.

With this definition, I will look to question: To what extent can an image, that is aestheticised and dramatised in order to reveal the truth, be validated? If the image is aestheticised, does this decrease its validity, or, through exposing the viewers to the real situation at hand, actually allow it to speak a louder truth, as understood by Fenton?

Further, it is important to also define aestheticised violence. Aestheticised violence is not the excessive violence that is portrayed in Hollywood blockbusters, nor is it the uniquely bleak horrors of Francis Bacons paintings. Instead, aestheticised violence is a violent situation that is being portrayed in a sublime composition. It juxtaposes and contrasts the brutality at hand with composure and beauty, causing the viewer to feel ethically compromised between allure and pain. Margret Bruder describes this concept eloquently in her thesis on aestheticising violence in performance and film, where she states ‘Aestheticised violence is the rupturing of our participation in traditional modes of storytelling. It performs the cultural function of helping us to negotiate a change and putting into light an issue in a different and less direct way’.10 This allows us to question, consider, understand, and find our own ethical position on the situation at hand. This concept is influenced greatly by the work of German playwright Bertolt Brecht, who demanded his audience to be more aware, through provoking them into dialectical thinking. His influence is explored later on in the paper.

Therefore, this paper questions: if our capacity to acknowledge the reality of the situation has been eroded by constant vulgar and appalling images shown in the newspapers and magazines, should we not deliberately disintegrate that view on reality, through creating beautiful images, that will remain in the mind of its viewers? If this photograph is beautiful, wellcomposed and holds a deeper political meaning, where do the lines 10 Margret Bruder. Aestheticising Violence, Or How to Do Things With Style. (Department of Comparative Literature, Indiana

University, 2003) p. iv, 15 12

between this aesthetic approach and art blur? As Sontag states ‘Photographs with the most solemn or heart-rendering subject matter are art’.11

M E T H OD OLOGY

I will evaluate these themes through a series of close readings of photographs from the history of documentary war photography, such as Don McCullin and Sebastião Salgado, to looking at the state of photography today, as seen through the works of Richard Mosse and Joseph Eid. I will look to understand the photographers tactics and their influences from fine art, moving image and the contemporary world. I will analyse the medium that they exist in, such as magazines, books, films or the gallery space, to understand the mode of representation that each photographer uses and how their choice facilitates to a particular kinds of interaction with the photograph, raising awareness for the violence it holds. How are these photographs received socially and politically, to make them the powerful image they are today?

It is important to assess each photograph within the the social context they fall into, paralleled with the theorists and thinkers that prevailed at the time, such as Virgina Woolf and Susan Sontag. 81 years ago, when Woolf wrote Three Guineas, photographs were a novelty. Would taking them back to this state, by respecting them as art, allow them to hold a stronger presence?

This dissertation will end with an evaluation on the coverage of the Syrian war. As one of the most overexposed wars to date, it is crucial to explain the importance of the aestheticised photograph through this conflict, and the mission contemporary photographers and artists have given themselves today to ensure the sufferers voices are heard.

11 Sontag, p.108

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I urge the reader to open up to the images that follow, enjoying the aesthetic pleasure the images hold, while contemplating the violent reality behind them.

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T HE H IS TORY OF WAR P HOTO GRA PHY The Spanish Civil War of 1936 - 1939, saw the birth of the photojournalist and the start of war photography. It was during this time that the profession of bearing witness to a war with a camera, became a reality. This marked a turning point in society, as it allowed those who were elsewhere, in the safety of their homes all over the world, to peer into this landscape of violence and terror.

It is one image and one photographer that strikes when considering the war. It is the photograph of a loyalist soldier, being captured by the camera at the very moment of death (Fig 2), taken by the Hungarian/American photographer, Robert Capa. Its strength lies in its ordinary mundanity and it's slight blurriness, that makes it look nearly accidental. The militiaman is dressed in ordinary clothes, with no kit or armour to protect him, making him seem vulnerable and innocent. Without the rifle that is falling out of his hand, his rolled up clean white sleeves and light trousers is not a standard feature seen during a war. The lack of blood or physical evidence of violent action taken upon him, makes the image easy on the eyes. It is only after pausing to consider the scenario taking place, does the image take the viewer by surprise due to the violence - making them susceptible to its truth.

Overtime, ‘this image became universally recognised as one of the greatest war photographs ever made’.12 However, since 1975, almost forty years after its publication, The Falling Soldier came under great scrutiny of being staged, and thus, disregarded for its authenticity and truthfulness by critic Philip Knightley. Knightley claims, that the the soldiers were not under attack, but only staging the scene.13 This charge, and many accusations that followed, caused a great deal of controversy that still taints the photograph today. This decreased the 12 Richard Whelan. This Is War! Robert Capa At Work. (New York: International Centre of Photography, 2007) p.54 13 Philip Knightley. The First Casualty: From Crimea to Vietnam: The War Correspondent as Hero, Propagandist and Myth Maker

(Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1975) p.193 18

Fig. 2 - The Falling Soldier. (Full title: Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death, Cerro Muriano) Robert Capa, 1936.

impact of the photograph and its true mark in history. However, does the taint of suspicion render it impotent and disregarded, after having generated a shocking and empathetical view on the war for the first time in modern society? Why does its truthfulness matter forty years later, if the image had created an important awareness of the civil war across the world? There are many classical and contemporary paintings that portray death, war and battle, which hold strong empathetical connotations. These paintings are highly appreciated and regarded with great awareness due to their portrayal of an event that the painter may have not experienced. Can this photograph not be appreciated for the same emotions that it causes the viewer to feel? And therefore, shouldn’t Phillip Knightley’s critic, especially due to its delay, be rendered insignificant?

Richard Whelan in his Autobiography This Is War! Robert Capa At Work, described the The Falling Solider, as an ‘image of the quintessential Loyalist of the Spanish Civil War. [It] symbolised Republican Spain itself, charging forward to defend itself and being struck down’14.

This quote sparks a similarity and connection to Francisco Goya’s The Third of May 1808 (fig 3) that was commissioned and completed in 1814. Here, the surrenderer [a symbolisation of Republican Spain] is dressed in the same colours as Capa’s Loyalist Militiaman, contrasting and crumbling against his monolithic horror’s [Napoleon’s Army] in pearly white and beige, and standing out like a halo in the dark. The painting holds a strong emotional force that remains in the viewers’ memory, making them feel the vulnerability, innocence and fear of the surrenderer. Once this empathy is felt, it automatically allows the viewers to consider their position on the situation at hand and take a stance.

14 Whelan, p.54

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Fig. 3 - The Third of May 1808 , Francisco Goya, 1814.

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Goya changes history with The Third of May 1808, as during his time, the painting diverged greatly from the traditions of Christian art and the traditional depictions of war, and through its composition and presentation, it became known as the first painting of the modern era15.

Capa’s The Falling Soldier plays on Goya as an influence. The white and beige dress of the subject allows him to seem like no more than a simple labourer, which strikes a stronger familiarity and empathy with viewers. Whether a true lucky strike, or a staged image, the dramatisation of the scenario and the strong reaction that it held, marked a new form of contemporary photography - a photography that presents the war in a delicate, fragile and sensitive manner that hits home.

Being a photojournalist, Capa was conscripted under journalism. Images had to attract attention, shock and surprise, yet be truthful and gritty. Capa mastered the art of the blurry image, that authenticated it to publishers as an action shot and his images were published in the likes of Vu, Life and Time weekly. The Falling Soldier was one of the first, which then followed an overdose in production of violent and dramatic images. Magazines craved the dramatisation and surprise, as consumers grew. This became the normality of a culture, and shock became a leading stimulus of consumption and source value16.

The Falling Solider began to grow outside of its war subject, and utilised in ways greater than Capa had initially intended due to its popularity. Sontag comments on the appearance of The Falling Soldier opposite a Vitalis hair ad in Life (Fig 6), explaining the comparisons and contrasts between the two kinds of photographs, ‘editorial’ and ‘advertising’. She states that although there is an unbridgeable difference in the political and social mediums of the two, there is no difference in the the way they are both used to attract viewers’ attention and increase consumption value. Here, she is downgrading the photograph to merely an advertisement, rather than 15 Fred Licht. Goya : The Origins of The Modern Temper In Art (London : J. Murray, 1980) p.116 - 127 16 Sontag, p.20

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political notion of awareness to war. She concludes that 'the image as a shock, and the image as a cliche are two aspects of the same presence’.17 As once it is shocking, it is reproduced through every media source. This constant reproduction therefore, degrades the realism of the photograph, and the message loses its importance.

Virgina Woolf would profess that the shock of a photograph such as Capa’s cannot fail to unite people of good will against War18. However, during Woolf’s reign in the 1930’s, public circulation of photographs was still very new. She could not have conceived the world we live in today, of reproduction and the internet.

The state of consumption of war photography heightened and increased through every war since. During Vietnam, photographs turned into video recordings, and war was introduced into the intimacy of the home, being watched on domestic television every evening. This exposure proved very successful primitively, as it lead to US defeat due to viewers’ strong opposition to the brutality.

However, over the years leading to the War on Terror, we grew immune to the photographs and the concept of war. It was not until the images from Abu Ghraib, and the Hooded Figure, in 2004, did we feel a re-stimulation of shock.

These images, that showed detainees being tortured, raped and murdered at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by US Soldiers, came at a point of true rawness and brutality, and were not intended for public viewing or consumption.

Viewers could see clearly the human rights violations taking place in these images, promoting a sudden distrust in American Foreign Affairs and causing worldwide controversy of Bush’s administration. One quote on CNN read ‘It was something completely new -- something that we had not seen before in all the dictionary of prisoners, torture and mistreatment. It just weakened the

17 Sontag, p.20 18 ‘Looking at War: Photography’s view of devastation and death’ Susan Sontag for The New Yorker (1 December 2002) https://

www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/12/09/looking-at-war [Accessed: 18th May 2019] 22

argument completely’.19 It brought evidence to the lengths of human cruelty we have reached.

With Abu Ghraib, although the images held a great shock factor, it stands in a different category to aestheticised violence that this dissertation looks at, as it was the act itself that created a great shock, while the photographs only held proof of it. The photograph only played a medium of showing this truth, rather than being used as a weapon for a political stance. However, Abu Ghraib is important to mention in this context, because it sparks the question that Errol Morris, the director of the Abu Ghraib documentary Standard Operating Procedure, author, and a great theorist on the truth in photography asks: ‘is it possible for a photograph to change the world?’.20

19 ‘Abu Ghraib Photos were ‘big shock’, Undermined US Ideals’ Darsh Wayne for CNN (20 May 2009) http://edition.cnn.com/

2009/WORLD/meast/05/18/detainee.abuse.lookback/index.html [Accessed 15th June 2019] 20 Standard Operating Procedure: The War on Terror will be Photographed dir. by Errol Morris (Sony Pictures Classics, 2008)

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Fig. 4- Life, 16th August 1937, Gerda Taro killed in action, with The Falling Soldier on her right.

Fig. 5 - Vu, September 23, 1939, page spread with Capa’s photographs of Cerro Muriano

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Fig. 6 - Life, July 12th 1937. Capa’s The Falling Solider, opposite a Vitalis ad.

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< Fig. 7 - Shell-Shocked US Marine, The Battle of Hue, Vietnam. Don McCullin, 1968.

T HE AE S THET IC ISATIONS Shell-Shocked US Marine, Don McCullin

McCULLIN + MAGNUM Renowned as one of Britains greatest living photographers, Don McCullin has witnessed and captured photographs of war and conflict from Vietnam and Congo, to Iraq and Northern Ireland. During an age of blurry images and filmed recordings occupying our television screens, Don McCullin chose composure to tell the story of the Vietnam War. Before delving into his time in Vietnam, his tactics, and political stance, it is important to place Don McCullin to his membership and relationship with Magnum Photos.

Magnum, founded by Robert Capa and others in 1949, is a cooperative of photojournalists who believe that photography has the humanitarian mission of ‘bearing witness’, that comes above any other allegiance. Their intention is to create an idiosyncratic mix of journalists, artists and storytellers, who question the current issues of the world. Through photography, they transcribe the issues visually, and make it accessible to the public21. They believe in delving deep into the subject their photographers are passionate on addressing. They stand uniquely to other photo agencies such as Getty, who are instead geared towards a broader notion of photojournalism.

Although McCullin spent a very brief period of time as a member of Magnum (1967-1969), Shell-Shocked US Marine (Fig 7) analysed in this chapter, was captured and published during his association with the agency.

It is evident through McCullin’s photography that he holds onto many of Magnums notions and intentions, although he denies any relationship to, or

21 ‘Overview’ Magnum Photos https://www.magnumphotos.com/about-magnum/overview/ [Accessed 6th May 2019]

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any influence as such22. With over 100 acclaimed photographers being associated with Magnum, it is important to consider the following photographers in this dissertation to their relationship, or lack thereof, within the cooperative.

SHELL-SHOCKED U.S. MARINE, 1968

It is within the marines’ far and cold, yet sorrow, eyes do you experience the violence of this war. His slightly open lip and resting face with his loose grip on the rifle, he is statuesque and frozen in time. The grit and wear of war is seen in his cheeks and dirty hands, yet he bears no signs of physical violence.

His head is slouched down into his shoulders, emphasising his hopelessness and loss. He may bear no evident physical wounds, but the violence, as seen through his eyes, is permanently ingrained into his mind. Through this photograph, it is clear that he has lost all hope to move forward, and lost all hope for the war.

The power of this image is one that is timeless. Lacking a context or a background, this image can be viewed by anyone at anytime and allow them to feel the pain and suffering that this marine has faced. The image is not hard to look at, it is not gory, bloody or gritty, but thoroughly sympathetic.

It is not a blurry action-shot, but instead, composed almost perfectly. The composure and the exquisite attention to detail that McCullin has captured demands the same level of awareness and concentration in return, which asks the the viewer to stop, stare, and question.

McCullin’s intention and aim, of creating an anti-war image that shows the effects of conflict, is utterly successful and undeniable. McCullin’s ability to get close to his photographic subject, allows the camera to capture every wrinkle and scar of suffering, allowing the subject to seem more human, and is key in generating great empathy in his work.23 Although McCullin’s encounter with the soldier was brief, where the marine was unresponsive, 22 ‘Don McCullin on the costs of ambition and the future of photojournalism’ Tom Seymour (19 February 2019) ‘ https://

www.creativereview.co.uk/don-mccullin-on-the-costs-of-ambition-and-the-future-of-photojournalism/ [Accessed 6th May 2019] 23 Aïcha Mehrez (ed.) Don McCullin (London: Tate Publishing of Tate Enterprises Ltd, 2019) p.11

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McCullin captures the soldiers story and pain, and makes the viewer empathise with him greatly.

Through his use of black and white photography (where, during this time, he had explored and published colour photographs of Vietnam, as seen in fig. 8), it allows the viewer to concentrate on the subject at hand, without being distracted by colour, and look deeper into the image. The soldiers hands that may have been reddened by blood, are turned into shades of grey, being depicted as dirt or wear. This enables the viewer to not focus on the physical violence, but focus on the affliction and suffering in the marine’s eyes.

In this way, McCullin’s conscious choice of black and white photography may be a deliberate attempt of ensuring more viewers are able to digest the photograph without turning away. It can also be a nudge to historic war photographs, all of which were black and white, in a way to ensure seriousness and consideration is taken when viewing his images, placing himself in the longer trajectory of photojournalists.

Fig. 8 - The Sunday Times, 24 March 1968. Don McCullin in Vietnam. Showing his use of colour photography.

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MEDIUM OF REPRESENTATION

McCullin’s power to capture viewers’ attention and make them feel is the basis to why his recent exhibition at the Tate Britain in London has gathered such an incredible and wide-ranging audience. His images appeal to all ages, as visitors do not necessarily have had to experience the war in order to be emotionally aware of the violence and suffering the photographs depict.

However, McCullin’s work fits best and has had the most success within the context of magazines and books. Having captured most of his photographs on assignment for the Sunday Times Magazine24, this medium of journalism, which he does not advance from, is made clear through his exhibition at the Tate Britain (Fig 9). Although Shell-Shocked US Marine holds great symbolism for being one of the most potent photographs of the Vietnam War, the power and emotional force of this, and many other compelling photographs, is not reflected within the gallery space.

Within the exhibition, all of McCullin’s photographs are presented at the same size (fig. 10), creating overcrowding around each (fig 9), and and a slightly underwhelming experience when regarding the space as a whole.

Although , positively, the images force the visitors to view them at close proximity and therefore holds their attention, they do not dramatise the size of the photographs to utilise the gallery as the important public and social space that it is today.

However, the photographs were produced during the age of magazines, journals and early television. Thus, it is evident that the curator, Simon Baker, acknowledges and respects their historical context, sustaining them as journalistic photographs rather than displaying them as art.

24 Ibid, p.6

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Fig. 9- Don McCullin Exhibition at the Tate Britain, 9th February 2019. Photographs taken by Author

Fig. 10 - Don McCullin Exhibition at the Tate Britain. Tate Photography by Matt Greenwood. Annotated by Author, showing location of Shell-Shocked US Marine.

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RECEPTION

Although the war did not end for a further seven years, the portrait now stands as a representation for a conflict that took a heavy toll in lives and public support, and became increasingly seen as an unjustified intervention by the US Foreign Office25. This image holds a place in history, due to its beauty and composure that was uncommon at the time, and therefore its ability to seek empathy from the viewer.

Don McCullin refuses to be considered an artist, and finds it troubling to see how the human tragedy that his photographs depict could be appreciated for their aesthetic worth26. However, his artistry is in his ability to capture the suffering with such serenity, demanding attention and empathy.

Through his choice of saturation, detail and composure, the photograph is dramatised and holds great power. It conveys McCullin’s compassion with the sufferers, and rage at our indifference to the subject.

McCullin’s series from Vietnam further went on to influence Stanley Kubrick’s portrayal of the war in his film Full Metal Jacket. As a director renowned for his own aestheticisation of violence and dramatisation of events, it is evident that McCullin holds a crucial place in the trajectory of the aestheticisation of violence, and is very successful in portraying the strength that a single photograph can hold. Kubrick’s recent exhibition at the Design Museum references McCullin’s photographs as seen in Fig. 11, for the inspiration behind the set.

25 Ibid, p.18 26 Ibid, p.6

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Fig. 11 - Stanley Kubrick: The Exhibition at The Design Museum. Showing McCullin’s Vietnam photo series as influence to Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, 1987. Photograph taken by author.

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T HE AE S THET IC ISATIONS Rwandan Refugee Camp of Benako, Sebastião Salgado

SALGADO + McCULIN Taking influence from McCullin, Sebastião Salgado employs McCullin’s methods to aestheticise his own photography, as seen in Rwandan Refugee Camp of Benako (Fig 12). Taken in the 1990’s, Salgado dramatises the image through the conscious application of greyscale in a world full of colour. This induces the photograph’s perpetual and fantastical characteristics.

Salgado himself admits to his admiration of McCullin, stating in an interview to The Guardian ‘Don McCullin for me was God’.27 However, the only comparison seen between the two, is the saturation choice and their strong contrasts. While McCullin refuses any indication of his intentions to aestheticise, leaving Magnum Photos due to this, Salgado’s intentions for aestheticisation are clear, and was associated with Magnum for over 15 years. Through the flawless composure and formality portrayed in his photo series, he alters the world of photojournalism and begins to blend it with art.

RWANDAN REFUGEE CAMP OF BENAKO, 1994 Rwandan Refugee Camp of Benako holds great strength in its beauty. It surpasses specific space and time, and therefore emphasises all human displacement and suffering. It sparks empathy from the viewer, as it does not only relate to the matter at hand (The Rwandan Genocide of 1994), but can relate to all experiences of displacement seen across the world, from

27 ‘Man with the Golden Eye’ Nicholas Wroe for The Guardian (10 June 2000) https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/

2000/jun/10/photography.art [Accessed 16th April 2019] 36

^ Fig. 12 - Rwandan Refugee Camp of Benako, Tanzania. Sebastião Salgado, 1994

migration in search of a better future, to environmental catastrophes, ethnic cleansing and war.

Situating the mother and smiling son as the dominant focus and foreground of the image deliberately compels the viewer to feel compassion, love and familial connection, empathising with the victims. This photo series doesn’t show the immediate brutality of conflict on the battleground, such as death and bloodshed, but instead, follows the prolonged violence that results as an aftermath. Here, again, the violence portrayed is not one of gore, but of those wounded permanently in different ways, which at the time was not a focus of media outlets, and therefore an unusual scene.

Critics such as writer Ingrid Sichy argue that ‘beautifying human tragedy results in pictures that ultimately reinforce our passivity towards the experience they reveal’.28 In other words, the beauty and aesthetics of a photograph can weaken its message. However, can it not be argued instead that the beauty depicted in the Rwandan Refugee Camp of Benako actually gives dignity to the people in them? Salgado himself states that although the subjects of his photographs were frightened, uncomfortable and humiliated, they allowed themselves to be photographed in order to have their story told.29 Salgado’s respect and compassion for these refugees therefore comes through in the aestheticisation of his images, as if, through the delicate articulation and the attention paid to detail, allows him to reveal the humanity of the victims. They are not just subjects of a photograph, but the photograph is subject to them. This is highlighted immaculately in writer Eduardo Galeano’s essay ‘Salgado, 17 Times’: Salgado’s photographs, a multiple portrait of human pain, at the same time invite us to celebrate the dignity of humankind. Brutally frank, these images of hunger and suffering are yet respectful and seemly…

Salgado sometimes shows skeletons, sometimes corpses, with dignity

28 ‘Can Suffering be Too Beautiful?’ Michael Kimmelman for The New York Times (13 July 2001) https://www.nytimes.com/

2001/07/13/arts/photography-review-can-suffering-be-too-beautiful.html [Accessed 17th April 2019] 29 Sebastião Salgado. Migrations: Humanity in Transition (New York: Aperture Foundation, 2000) p.7

37

- all that is left of them. They have been stripped of everything, but they have dignity (translated by Asa Zatz).30

Rwandan Refugee Camp of Benako portrays a complex and eventful scene, showing the love and liveliness within the community. The occupied misty terrain sparks the curiosity of a viewer, as they dig into the details and activities of the subjects, capturing the viewers attention through the storytelling of all the activities at play. The photograph does not hold the characteristics of a typical documentary photograph, but holds a satisfying presence of almost sacred and meditative connotations, where you can almost imagine the tribal hum of music and conversation. This allows the viewer to enjoy the scene and appreciate it with comfort and ease.

The photograph timelessness bears resemblance of both past and present art forms. Manifesting from Christian and Renaissance paintings, that beautified suffering and depicted a great landscape of happenings, as seen by the eventful paintings of Breughel (fig. 13), to fantastical Hollywood TV scenes, such as in the villages of Game of Thrones. The power of the photograph is achieved through its aesthetic characteristic, that captivates and grips us. As Kimmelman states in his article in the New York Times on Salgado ‘what causes any image to stick in the mind, aside from shock content, whose impact tends to be brief, are qualities like pictorial integrity and compositional originality’.31

30 Sebastião Salgado, Eduardo Galeano and Fred Ritchin. Sebastião Salgado: An Uncertain Grace (London: Thames and Hudson

Ltd. 1990) p.8 31 ‘Photography Review: Can Suffering be Too Beautiful?’ Michael Kimmelman [Accessed 16th April 2019]

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Fig. 13 - The Procession to Calvary. Breughel the Elder, 1564. 124cm x 170cm.

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MEDIUM OF REPRESENTATION

Rwandan Refugee Camp of Benako was published in Salgado’s 1994 book, Migrations (fig 14). Salgado has published 11 books since 1990, showing his admiration for the medium. There is great beauty in the concept of a book, as the time and effort taken for editing, organising and writing, all of which are made by the author himself, is evident. The book adds a seriousness and permanence to the conflict that the photographs portray, that would not be felt through a weekly magazine or when seen recycled on TV. Sontag comments on this, writing ‘photographs survive better in a book, where one can look privately, linger over the pictures, without talking’.32 In Migrations, the image can hold great power over the viewer, as their attention is focused on the physical copy in their hands, looking at it to themselves. This enables a closer relationship to the image (both visual and physical) and a dialogue to be opened between the viewer, the photograph and the photographer, with the photographer directing the viewer through.

Through the action of turning the page, the viewer is no longer only a spectator to the images, but instead, holds the power of choice. It is the viewers choice to turn over the page and keep looking, opening a dialect between the photographer and viewer.

The book is a relevant and strong medium for Salgado’s work, especially with the photographs meditative and sensitive nature, that can be greatly enjoyed in privacy. The privacy this medium provides also allows the viewer to contemplate and consider, coming to their own individual ethical position on the situation.

Salgado’s eye for composition is not only seen in the photographs themselves, but further in the way he sets them out within Migrations. The images are organised in importance by their size, with more potent scenes taking up the whole spread. His books tend to be much larger than usual, (fig 15), dramatising the photographs further, and allowing the viewer to be overwhelmed by the beauty and detail as they flick the pages.

32 Sontag, p.109

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However, still, the book will be closed, and the strong feelings and emotions become ephemeral, as the book is placed on a bookshelf and remains out- of-sight until the distant future. Finishing Sontag’s quote from above, she states: As the book goes out of view, ’Eventually the specificity of the photographs’ accusations will fade, the denunciation of a particular conflict will become a denunciation of human cruelty... ’.33

RECEPTION

Salgado’s venture into the medium of the book allows his photographs to hold a more important and convincing place in society than that of a magazine or television. They are not reproduced and overexposed, allowing their shock factor to remain when viewed. In this way, he ventures from the typical attributes of a photojournalist, into that of a curator, storyteller and artist, holding the audiences attention through all aspects.

Salgado is not simply a photojournalist, and is considered by many as an artist instead. Galeano explains the distinction between the two, and the respect an artist has in our modern society, by describing as follows: 7. Consumer-photographers approach but do not enter. In hurried visits to scenes of despair or violence, they climb out of the plane or helicopter, press the shutter release, explode the flash: they shoot and run. They have looked without seeing and their images say nothing. Their cowardly photographs soiled with horror or blood may extract a few crocodile tears, a few coins… but none of which changes the order of the universe. … Salgado photographs from the inside, in solidarity. He remained in the Sahel for 15 months when he went there to photograph hunger. He travelled in Latin America for seven years to garner a handful of photographs (translated by Asa Zatz).34

33 Ibid, p.109 34 Sebastião Salgado. Migrations: Humanity in Transition (New York: Aperture Foundation, 2000) p.8

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Fig. 14 - Rwandan Refugee Camp of Benako 1994, in Migrations by SebastiĂŁo Salgado.

Photograph taken by Author

Fig. 15 - SebastiĂŁo Salgado with his book Genesis: Taschen 42

This makes clear the difference in Salgado’s methods to that of a typical photojournalist. It highlights the energy, the appreciation and the respect that Salgado has to the scenarios he photographs. It reveals an artist, who questions the world and its conflicts, and asks the world to question it with him. He does not belong in magazines and on the television. His photographs should not be recycled and reproduced and misunderstood as one of thousands.

His aestheticisation of violence ensures that his message is shouted loudly, making the world stop and listen, and ensuring that the sufferers are remembered.

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T HE AE S THET IC ISATIONS The Enclave Series, Richard Mosse MOSSE

While most war photographers either refuse the aestheticisation intended in their images (such as Don McCullin) or justify it by explaining it’s humanitarian aspects (Sebastião Salgado), Richard Mosse has alternatively rose to prominence through his very demanding and direct aestheticisations of war.

When traditional forms of storytelling and photojournalism are no longer igniting our shrivelled empathy and we have grown immune to the brutality and suffering, we need to be re-stimulated in order for us to raise awareness on the happenings in the world. As Associate Editor of Frieze Art Fair, Christy Lange, states in her essay on Mosse: ‘War is not black and white, but abstract and complex. The range of types of conflict is so broad, but the means of representing them are finite and limited’.35 Mosse’s work The Enclave and those which follow, such as Heat Maps, can be seen as the start of a new Aesthetic Movement in photography. It comes as a direct and immediate reaction to the past of photojournalism and the skeptical of ethical and unethical. Due to this, Mosse’s work is highly criticised for it’s aesthetic connotations. However, if an image is raising awareness and ingraining in your mind a forgotten situation where human rights violations are taking place, can that image really be considered unethical because of its aestheticisation? Especially if that aestheticisation is the sole reason that your attention was captured?

We are bombarded by realistic, ‘truthful’, and gritty violent photography everyday, doesn’t Mosse’s transformation of war photography increase our awareness, instead of falter it?

35 Christy Lange ‘At The Edge of the Visible’, in Deutsche Borse Photography Prize 2014 ed. by Eva Eicker and Brian Dillon

(London: Photographers' Gallery, 2014) p. 84 45

< Fig. 16 - Drag, (from the series: The Enclave) Richard Mosse, 2012

THE ENCLAVE SERIES, 2012 Mosse’s The Enclave series is engulfed in shades of pink. He uses a discontinued military film technology, the Infrared Camera, commonly used to reveal camouflaged installations hidden in the landscape.36 Mosse turns the camera to reveal the invisible crisis of the Congo.

The use of pink, although much bolder and distinctive, holds the same level of intervention as seen in the works of McCullin and Salgado. Both had consciously chosen black and white photography over that of colour, and here, Mosse intentionally chooses infrared instead. Many argue that his use of pink is unethical in relation to war, and extremely staged in relation to the truth. Yvette Gresle writes in the International Art Magazine, Apollo, ‘His highly staged, colour-saturated images of landscapes and human subjects from the Democratic Republic of Congo appear unreal: therefore they declare their artifice’.37 But, how much more untruthful and constructed can a pink photograph to a black and white one, when both are a conscious decision? Mosse’s unseen use of infrared diverges from the trajectory of war photography, and sets onto a new path of contemporary war photography.

Within The Enclave series, Drag stands out (fig 16). Here, the pink creates an illusive and fantastical apprehension, that disrupts the viewer’s senses on reality. Where we expect to see browns and greens, we see crimson, hot pink and seductive saturations, transforming the background of tall grass into an ethereal purity. The composure, colour and perfection of the image seems almost imaginary. This urges the consideration of the idea of war itself, and its lack of a ‘real’ foothold in our lives. Mosse argues for this, and questions, can war be considered ‘dreamlike’,38 due its extremity and brutality that is not experienced by most people? Our ability to grow immune to photographs of war and suffering, and our lack of action in turn, shows our denial of its existence. Therefore, if war is in fact dreamlike,

36 ‘The Enclave’ Richard Mosse (2013) http://www.richardmosse.com/projects/the-enclave [Accessed 20th April 2019] 37 ‘Oversaturated: The Problem with Richard Mosse’s photography’ Yvette Gresle for Apollo Magazine (20 June 2014) https://

www.apollo-magazine.com/oversaturated-problem-richard-mosses-photography/ [Accessed 23rd April 2019] 38 Lange, p.84

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wouldn’t realism seem an inadequate way of presenting it?39 This enables Mosse’s The Enclave series to become a more honest representation of the sentiments of war to those who experience it from the safety of their homes.

We escape reality into a world of pinks and blues. This allows the viewer to open up to Drag as they enjoy the beauty of the landscapes. Through fantasy, we escape the realism of the scenario, and although we are looking at violent weapons and actions, we are being compelled into their artifice.

We become vulnerable to the situation presented in front of us through the belief in its fiction, and become shocked when the reality of the conflict seeps into our consciousness. This makes the viewer begin to feel confused and ethically compromised.

Mosse uses his aestheticisation, not for the creation of empathy, but as a way to shock and disorient the viewer, to raise awareness to the situation at hand. He is infamously quoted for saying ‘If you can seduce the viewer and make them feel aesthetic pleasure from regarding a landscape where human rights violations happen all the time, then you can put them in a really problematic place for themselves. They feel ethically compromised’.40 In this way, Mosse channels into photography what German playwright Bertolt Brecht intended with Theatre. Through Brecht’s plays, he demanded his audience to not be merely spectators who only look, without consideration or action. He instead coerced his audiences into awareness, through provoking them into dialectical thinking and decision making, which forces their complicity.41 Brecht embraced this ideology of aestheticised violence, and is considered a pioneer and pathfinder for a new way of storytelling.42

39 Ibid 40 The Works, Richard Mosse: Extended Interview with John Kelly 41 Maggie Nelson, The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012) p.24 42 Benton Jay Komins, ‘Rewriting, Violence, and Theatre: Bertolt Brecht’s The Measures Taken and Heiner Müller’s Mauser’ The

Comparatist, 26:May (2002) 99-119 (p.99).

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Fig 17 - The Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick, 1971 Film Stills, Captured by Author

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The feelings that come upon a viewer while regarding The Enclave series strongly bring to mind Stanley Kubrick’s The Clockwork Orange, who in turn is also greatly influenced by the work of Brecht.

Through the use of aestheticisation to create a fictitious reality, while regarding a jarring and brutal truth, there is an undeniable comparison between Brecht’s plays, the film and The Enclave. They create a distance between the viewers and the content through a fantastical background, giving us a vantage point from which we can critique the state of humanity, and question.

The Clockwork Orange released in 1971 was considered to depict such a high extremity of violence, that it was banned from viewing in the UK until Kubrick’s death in 1999. However, Kubrick’s creation of a futuristic dystopian London that the film is set in is more than beautiful. The framing of scenes, the set design, the significant use of colour and the fashion all create a fantastical and aesthetically pleasing world (fig 17). Here, the viewer as in The Enclave series, falls vulnerable to the story, as its context renders the matter unreal. The scenes’ brutal beatings, hysteric murders and rape which are all narrated with panache and aesthetic pleasure, make the film extremely artistic. Most of those who admire A Clockwork Orange are greatly drawn to its artistry, and Kubrick himself is found defending it as such: ‘The film is accredited as a work of art, and no work of art has ever done social harm’.43 This experimentation in style and form challenges the audiences to question the situation, and leave them considering the position in which they stand, rather than providing them with the moral solutions. It leaves them feeling ethically compromised and confused, raising awareness to the cruel and very realistic situations and happenings of the world, all done through the films very powerful aestheticisation.

The strength of The Enclave series therefore ultimately lies in its aesthetic connotations, and Mosse’s interrogation through the uneasy co-existence of

43 Quoted from ‘Stanley Kubrick: The Exhibition’ Design Museum, 26 April - 15 September 2019.

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the sublime with the ethics of war-reportage.44 Here, Mosse’s methods to manipulate and capture the attention of the viewer creates unforgettable photographs from a forgotten crisis. He captures the voices of the Congolese rebels, telling their story in a new manifestation of colour and high-definition, screaming the need for world to take action.

MEDIUM OF REPRESENTATION Mosse sees himself as an ‘artist’ foremost, who journeys into similar territories to a photojournalist.45 Owning this title, which both McCullin and Salgado do not, enables Mosse to aestheticise and experiment. He confesses to his own theatrics, and is unapologetic to the composure of his images, as it makes them thought-provoking, and empowers them to gain the appreciation and respect of fine art.

Mosse’s medium is therefore the gallery. Similarly to a book, the respect held for the photograph grows beyond that of documentary footage. It becomes valued and rare, and not recyclable and constant. As an art piece, the photographs become a novelty, which hold onto their shock-factor and beauty, being viewed in their respected medium only by a certain number of ticket-holders within a gallery setting. The concern for the situation depicted flourishs, as viewers make an event of it, raising awareness for this humanitarian crisis through art. The gallery itself, as a social and public space, holds great importance in our society today. While other mediums and media sources had their importance in history, the gallery is the medium presently used by artists both politically and socially to voice their political stance.

Mosse works very successfully in this context and embraces the technological advancements of high-definition large scale prints, and highdefinition screens (fig 18). The Enclave series’s photographs and video

44 Brett Rogers, ‘Foreward’ in Deutsche Borse Photography Prize 2014 ed. by Eva Eicker and Brian Dillon (London:

Photographers' Gallery, 2014) p. 7 45 Richard Mosse: The Impossible Image dir. by Jesse Watt

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installation engulf you in a mesmerising mix of emotion. Mosse’s strongest exhibition is his 40 minute documentary film, as installed in the Irish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (fig 19). It is displayed on six screens, losing the viewer in between bushes and landscapes, disorienting you through colour and movement. This overwhelms you, and creates an interactive experience that forces you to step into the cameraman shoes. Through this, the view is almost forced into empathy as the sufferers experience becomes realised. In the background you hear a soft hum of a foreign lullaby, an eerily contrasting affect to the violence you are watching. Only later did I discover the meaning behind the hum, which deeply violates the viewer emotionally.

The lullaby sings:

‘If you look inside the bushes, you will find many / Some were cut into pieces with knives / Others died because they were shot / Give thanks to God for still being alive.’46

RECEPTION Mosse’s exhibitions are very popular internationally and his works are collected by several museums worldwide. Many reviews have called his The Enclave Series ‘surreal’47 and ‘psychedelic’48 relating it to the sixties psychedelic pink, designed to cloud over the real world with a sense of alienation. It’s colour saturation brings to mind other eras, other alien jungles, constantly taking us away from its reality, to remind us of its harsh truth. What sticks is the stubborn bold and visual effects, leaving you questioning the ethical boundaries of art, and the ethical boundaries of the world. Therefore Mosse creates aestheticised illusions in service of the truth.

46 Lange, p.83 47 Jason Stearns, ‘Shocking Pink’, The Guardian, May 28 2011, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/may/28/richard-

mosse-infrared-photos-congo [Accessed 29th April 2019].

48 Teo Kermeliotis, ‘Stunning Congo Artwork Shows Conflict in a Different Light’, CNN, June 5 2013 http://edition.cnn.com/

2013/06/05/world/africa/congo-richard-mosse-the-enclave/index.html [Accessed 29th April 2019].

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Fig 18 - Richard Mosse: The Enclave Exhibition at the Jack Shainman Gallery, 2014.

Image courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery, photographed by Zach Hilty, 2014

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Fig 19 - The Enclave, six-screen Installation at the Venice Biennale 2013. Stills from Richard Mosse: The Impossible Image. Captured by Author.

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HEAT MAPS & INCOMING, 2017 The fantastical ‘other’ that Mosse portrays in The Enclave series is further seen in his more recent work, Heat Maps, 2017. Here, Mosse turns his attention onto a more exposed issue, the current Refugee Crisis.

From afar, his Heat Maps panoramic views show connotations and characteristics from Salgado’s Migrations. Using great contrasts of black and white saturations, they portray landscapes of temporality and emphasise the mass displacement caused by conflict (fig. 20). However, unlike Salgado, Mosse experiments with technology, using a military grade thermal imaging camera, normally used for surveillance of borders. Heat Maps, is a linear progression from The Enclave, but as it presented the sublime versus the violent, Heat Maps presents the delicacy of humanity versus the brutality of surveillance. The large scale of the photographs and the high-definition of the moving images (fig. 21) show delicate details of the refugees and their everyday lives.

The viewer here, is situated in the position of the watcher, watching the refugees under a dehumanising lens. The images are stark and featureless, showing transparencies through skin and brightness in place of cheeks and noses. The viewers begin to feel sympathy to the delicacy of humanity under this violent lens, and the temporality of the refugee camps is emphasised.

The dehumanising effect puts everyone under the same filter: the refugees, aid workers, police and military personnel. This emphasising their similar typology of humanity, putting into question the hostility governments posses against migrants, and their great attempts to stop those in desperate need from coming in. These people are essentially, in their purest essence, just the same as you and me – ‘just another heat source’.49 They are not evil or different, but only people attempting to survive and ensure a future for their families.

49 Daniel Norwood, Illusions in Service of the Truth

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This sparks empathy for the refugees, and through this surprising aestheticisation and dehumanisation, actually humanises their suffering to the viewers.

The Refugee Crisis and the Syrian Civil War, is considered to be one of the most overexposed conflicts in the history of our time. Being covered by photojournalists, artists, authors and the new citizen journalists, we have experienced and seen the crisis from all aspects and professions. This has exposed us even more than ever before to war, and with the technological advancements of the smart phone camera and the internet, we are able to view the conflict from the homes of the citizens themselves. Yet, somehow, we are able to view these scenes, read these articles, and go on without any sympathy to the situation.

This sparks a great urgency for the profession of photography to continue, and reconfigure, and re-stimulate, in order to ensure that this overexposure does not render this issue forgotten. Mosse’s methods and interactive exhibitions are incredibly successful in shocking the viewer, and therefore ensuring our awareness to the situation at hand. They make us feel more empathy towards the refugees and the sufferers than videos from their own homes have. This is done through the dramatic and overwhelming size of the photographs filled with delicate details. Mosse’s use of specific cameras, turning their violent use into an elegant and intricate medium and creating contrasts that leaving us feeling ethically compromised is impeccably successful.

His aestheticisation of violence is therefore constantly reminding us that these victims are human too, reigniting our humanity and our empathy. This calls for a new movement in photography that believes in the good will of people, who through the power felt from these photographs, can strive to make a difference in our suffering world today.

55

Fig. 20 - Detail of Moria Camp, Lesbos, Greece. Heat Maps, Richard Mosse, 2016

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Fig. 21 - â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Incomingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; at the Curve, Barbican. Richard Mosse, 2017

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os, Greece. Heat Maps, Richard Mosse, 2016

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T HE AE S THET IC ISATIONS The Music Over the Ruins of Aleppo, Joseph Eid EID The out-worldly yet beautifully humanising effect of Mosse’s Heat Maps leads to a new form of aestheticism in photography. Here, through inspiration from the works of both Salgado and Mosse, Joseph Eid finds the perfect balance between photojournalism and artistry to raise awareness to the happenings of the Syrian War today.

Joseph Eid, unlike Mosse, considers himself a photojournalist above all else, working for Agence France Presse (AFP), the french news agency. However, as a war photographer in today’s society, Eid understands the need to aestheticise his images.

Eid holds an attribute that increasingly aids his mission, the power of a storyteller. He introduces each subject with their name, respecting them as people. He writes about their backgrounds, identity’s and their reasons for braving the War, giving them their dignity and their voice. This is a basis as to why his beautiful photographic series, The Music Over the Ruins of Aleppo, has gained increasing popularity and received great appreciation.

THE MUSIC OVER THE RUINS OF ALEPPO, 2017

The Music Over the Ruins of Aleppo is breathtaking. There casually sits an old man, with a slightly hunched back, in a destroyed bedroom full of debris. He smokes his pipe and listens to his phonograph, as if only reflecting after a long day. His clothes, immaculately clean, contrasts the dusty atmosphere that surrounds him. His bed remains made, as if braving the war itself. The cool brisk winter adds a serenity to the scene.

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^ Fig. 22 - The Music Over The Ruins of Aleppo, Syria. Joseph Eid, 2017

The photograph is perfectly composed, yet its context is terribly broken.

The violence can be felt within the stone walls, an architecture that is in pain, attempting to withstand the conflict. The curtains and the shutters hang on, and Eid gives the components of the bedroom just as loud a voice as he gives his photographic subject - who we are introduced to as Mohammad Anis, or ‘Abu Omar’ (meaning, the father of Omar). Through this description alone, we know that the man is not only identified as himself, but as a husband and a father, humanising him and his reality almost instantly.

The strength of the photograph comes like many reviewed in this paper, its sense of timelessness and its almost fantastical connotations. The old man’s pipe, the furnishings of the 1930’s house, and phonograph player look to belong in a different and historic era, completely out of context of our modern society today. The photograph therefore stands out amongst others, as it sparks the curiosity of the viewer. In a review in TIME magazine, the bedroom is described as ‘a film set’.50 Here is a vintage car collector, insisting on remaining in his home, after most of the city have fled. He uses a cranked record player to keep music alive in a world where living without electricity is a reality. He was once a rich man, and you can tell from the way he dresses himself and holds himself. He is a man living in hope of a better future for his beloved country Syria, and believes that he belongs no where else. Eid writes: ‘There are some things that bombs and fighting just can’t kill. Like Mohammed Anis and his determination to live’.51 The strength of the photograph, along with its timelessness and fantastical and aesthetic pleasure, is due to its photographic subject. Eid not only creates a masterpiece, but focuses on one individuals story. The viewer feels empathy because the subject is deeply humanised. Abu Omar’s pain and suffering is felt in the violence inflicted upon his house, his hunched back, and his sorrow look. However, in contrast, you respect him for his dignity 50 Andrew Katz, ‘The Man on the Bed’, TIME, 14 March 2017, https://time.com/4701247/aleppo-syria-car-collector/ [Accessed 18th

May 2019] 51 Joseph Eid, ‘The Music Over the Ruins of Aleppo’, AFP Correspondent, 15 March 2017, https://correspondent.afp.com/music-

over-ruins-aleppo [Accessed 18th May 2019].

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and bravery, and find yourself pining for his happy ending. This image hits home, and delves deep into the viewers soul, as we are left hoping for peace and serenity for the man. Eid finishes: ‘It sums up so nicely Syria today. Life, hope, people so deeply attached to their homes, their country. After six years of war, the Syrians want life. They just want to let the music play’.52

MEDIUM OF REPRESENTATION + RECEPTION

Remaining loyal to photojournalism, the work of Eid is published mainly through AFP Correspondent’s website and Joseph Eid’s twitter account. In this way, Eid embraces the technological advancements and social media, understanding its ability to reach the whole world.

Eid dramatises his photographs and shows their importance by their strategic all-landscape orientation. This allows them to fit perfectly on a computer display and a TV screen. Upon opening his online article, you are greeted with the photograph covering the full width of the screen (fig. 23), and when turning on your television, you are overwhelmed by the image (fig. 24). In this way, his photo series very evidently demands your attention.

Through use of twitter as a platform, it has enabled the photograph to go viral. Although wide-spreading usually results in immunity to feelings on the issue, I believe the story Eid captures has a rare strength to it. Even when the photo loses its ability to shock, the story remains ingrained in the hearts and memories of all those who view it. Therefore, as seen in the work of Salgado, the photograph is only subject to the sufferer, used as a medium to gain the attention of the viewer. Through the photos dramatisation, it allows for the sufferers voice to be heard.

When interviewed in TIME on why The Music Over the Ruins of Aleppo has gained great popularity and appreciation, Eid stated: ‘maybe its because people are fed up of violence, from killing’, people are turning their eyes

52 Joseph Eid, ‘The Music Over the Ruins of Aleppo’.

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away because of it. But, instead ‘this image shows the humanity of Syria.

This picture touches the soul of the human being’.53 This rings true through the comments made and the reception the photograph has received, with Washington Post writer Ishaan Thanoor taking to twitter to state that it is one of the ‘most haunting and powerful images I’ve seen in a long time’.54 Comments of similar appreciation are widespread through Instagram, Reddit, Tumblr, and other platforms, showing Eid’s success in connecting with our society today.

Joseph Eid, and The Music Over the Ruins of Aleppo is a strong example to the strength photographs and photojournalists hold in raising awareness, and proves that it can take one photograph to alter, and change the views on a conflict. His work is urgent in the world today, to ensure we, as a humanity, remain aware emotionally of the toll these wars are taking on humankind.

53 Andrew Katz, ‘The Man on the Bed’, TIME, 14 March 2017, https://time.com/4701247/aleppo-syria-car-collector/ [Accessed 18th

May 2019].

54 Ishaan Thanoor, Twitter, 13 March 2017, https://twitter.com/ishaantharoor/status/841314017830412288 [Accessed 19th May

2019].

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Fig. 23 - The Music Over The Ruins of Aleppo webpage, AFP Correspondent. Screenshot by Author.

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Fig. 24 - The Music Over The Ruins of Aleppo, on CNN . 19th March 2017. Screenshot by Author

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C ON CLUS ION THE FUTURE OF PHOTOGRAPHY

In a world where the technological advancements of the camera has enabled everything to become visible, and in a society where there is an infinite capacity to connect with everyone everywhere - there comes a looming question for the necessity of professional photographers and photojournalists. Don McCullin himself casts doubt on the future of photojournalism in a recent interview with the Creative Review, he states ‘Photojournalism is showing every sign of being as dead as a door nail’.55 The camera has become an accessory in the hands of all people, and the internet has become the medium of distributing. With an average of 1.8 billion digital photographs uploaded everyday,56 we are completely exposed to the world.

With the rise of the smart phone camera, has come the rise of a new type of photojournalist, the citizen journalist. Citizen journalism in war and conflict is the act of bearing witness that the public citizens (who are usually the subjects of the photograph) have taken upon themselves. These tend to be blurry action shots or recordings that are witnessed and filmed in order to document and evidence the situation. Therefore, if professional war photographers’ sole purpose was the act of bearing witness and documentation, then, are they not rendered futile, as the citizens take matters into their own hands?

Through this paper, and the photographs presented, I argue that they are not. I argue that the necessity for professional photographers and wellcomposed photographs is as crucial as ever. Although the technological advancements has defeated professional photojournalism, it also holds the seeds for its rebirth.

55 Tom Seymour, ‘Don McCullin on the costs of Ambition and the Future of Photojournalism’, Creative Review, Feb 19 2019

https://www.creativereview.co.uk/don-mccullin-on-the-costs-of-ambition-and-the-future-of-photojournalism/ [Accessed 29th June 2019].

56 Mary Meeker ‘Internet Trends Report 2018’, Kleiner Perkins (May 30 2018) https://www.kleinerperkins.com/perspectives/

internet-trends-report-2018/ [Accessed 29th June 2019] 66

While in Don McCullin’s time, photographs served for both factual and emotional purposes, the technological explosion has presently divided photography into two roles. The role of bearing witness and evidencing, and the role of raising awareness through empathy and emotion.

Citizen journalists are taking on the role of photojournalism as we historically understand it through witnessing and documenting. Therefore, contemporary photographers should take on the new challenge of finding the viewer and catching their attention, in a world exhausted by amateur photography.

Both these roles can already be seen occurring in the coverage of the Syrian War, with evident contrasts between agencies such as the Syrian Archive, and the work of Joseph Eid. The Syrian Archives’ main purpose is the collection of factual photographs, for ‘a visual documentation of human rights violations, to use as evidence for justice’.57 Whereas, Eid instead follows the mission of raising awareness to the suffering through dramatisation and aestheticisation. The Music Over the Ruins of Aleppo may not serve as any factual evidence, but it holds great emotional force and empathy by those who view it.

THE NEW AESTHETIC MOVEMENT This new role of photography, which I coin as the new aesthetic movement, should be deeply embraced by upcoming and contemporary photographers, including Eid and Mosse. It should be acknowledged in its ability to run adjacent to citizen journalists and factual photography. This will liberate the movement’s aestheticisation from the argument of ‘truthful’ and ‘untruthful’, that has burdened photojournalists throughout history. The truth of the aestheticised photograph is in what it reveals in composition, and how it makes viewers feel.

57 The Syrian Archive, ‘About: Mission, Vision and Workflow’, The Syrian Archive (2018) https://syrianarchive.org/en/about

[Accessed 29th June 2019] 67

Welcoming the new aesthetic movement in war photography, and embracing its artistry, also enables the photographers move to the context of the gallery. Writer Matthew Crawford in his book The World Beyond Your Head: How to Flourish in the Age of Distraction regards human attention as a scarce commodity, and states that the key resource of the contemporary economy is that of concentration.58 One of the things that the move to the gallery would achieve, as seen by Richard Mosse’s The Enclave, is demanding the attention of the viewers by creating opportunities for a new kind of concentrative attention that would not be possible within our everyday lives.

At the beginning of this paper I questioned the ability of a photograph in our modern society to make its viewers feel strongly towards the suffering that it portrays in a distant reality. I believe that through beautifying and aestheticising, photographs can definitely capture the attention and appreciation of the world today, as the photographers in this paper have demonstrated. They have all ruptured and reshaped the conventional mode of storytelling of their time in order to trigger dialectical thinking on the situation at hand, in hopes of uniting the viewers against the human rights violations taking place, and leading to justice for those who suffer.

I believe the re-stimulation and rejigging of photographic representation in order to gain awareness will be consistently required moving forward, developing with and embracing new technological advancements of our future societies. Through coining this technique as the new aesthetic movement, it gives war photographers the freedom to express and experiment with different methods of representation (without being burdened by the ethical and unethical), as has been done in the art world throughout history. This enables their message, and the voice of those they capture, to resonate and be heard.

Already, photographers have been influenced by the works of Mosse and Eid, both in Syria and beyond, in an attempt to find their own techniques of 58 Mathew Crawford, The World Beyond Your Head: How to Flourish in an Age of Distraction (Penguin Books ltd, 2016) p.11

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aestheticisation that generate fantasy, compassion and affinity. From the misty, colourful and joyous photographs of Vadim Ghirda, to the dark and first-person game-like pulitzer prize winning shots of Javier Manzano.

Overall, I believe that compassion and sympathy is an aspect that most, if not all humans hold. A war photographers ultimate role in the contemporary world is therefore to endeavour to achieve a powerful image that speaks to those who view it. This can cause a very strong sense of action, uniting the people of good will and motivating them to fight against the brutality, cruelty and human rights violations in our world today, to ensure that no violence, death or conflict goes forgotten.

We are all humans above all else.

To feel empathy for others despite man made borders, is to be human.

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Thank you.

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FIGURE LIST

Title Page Image: Platon. The Enclave series. Richard Mosse, 2012.

http://www.richardmosse.com/projects/the-enclave [Accessed 15 December 2019].

Fig. 1 - Valley of the Shadow of the Death, Roger Fenton, 1855. https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/ 2007/09/25/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg-part-one/ [Accessed 4th April 2019].

Fig. 1.1 - Valley of the Shadow of the Death, Roger Fenton, 1855. https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/ 2007/09/25/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg-part-one/ [Accessed 4th April 2019].

Fig. 2 - The Falling Soldier. (Full title: Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death, Cerro Muriano) Robert Capa, 1936. Scanned: Whelan, Richard. This Is War! Robert Capa At Work. (New York: International Centre of Photography, 2007) p.83.

Fig. 3 - The Third of May 1808 , Francisco Goya, 1814.

Scanned: Whelan, Richard. This Is War! Robert Capa At Work. (New York: International Centre of Photography, 2007).

Fig. 4- Life Magazine, 16th August 1937, Gerda Taro killed in action, with The Falling Soldier on her right. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5702ab9d746x9634796c9f9/t/58cc3c3c86e6c0e0d0f5b5af/ 1489779795449/?format=1000w [Last Accessed: 3rd April 2019].

Fig. 5 - Vu, September 23, 1939, page spread with Capa’s photographs of Cerro Muriano Scanned: Whelan, Richard. This Is War! Robert Capa At Work. (New York: International Centre of Photography, 2007) p.56.

Fig. 6 - Life, July 12th 1937. Capa’s The Falling Solider, opposite a Vitalis ad.

Scanned: Whelan, Richard. This Is War! Robert Capa At Work. (New York: International Centre of Photography, 2007) p.59.

Fig. 7 - Shell-Shocked Soldier, Vietnam. Don McCullin, 1968.

Scanned: Tate Modern. Don McCullin. (London: Tate Publishing of Tate Enterprises Ltd, 2019) p.44.

Fig. 8 - The Sunday Times, 24 March 1968. Don McCullin in Vietnam Front Cover.

Scanned: Mehrez, Aïcha (ed.) Don McCullin (London: Tate Publishing of Tate Enterprises Ltd, 2019) p.

230.

Fig. 9 - ‘Don McCullin’ Exhibition at the Tate Britain, 9th February 2019.

Photographs taken by Author, 9 February 2019.

Fig. 10 - ‘Don McCullin’ Exhibition at the Tate Britain. Tate Photography by Matt Greenwood as referenced in: https://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/don-mccullin-retrospective-review-tate-britain Annotated by Author.

Fig. 11 - ‘Stanley Kubrick: The Exhibition’ Exhibition at The Design Museum. Showing McCullin’s Vietnam photo series as influence to Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, 1987. Photograph taken by author.

Fig. 12 - Rwandan Refugee Camp of Benako, Tanzania. Sebastiao Salgado, 1994. Scanned: Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. (New York: Aperture Foundation, 2000) p.183.

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Fig. 13 - The Procession to Calvary. Breughel the Elder, 1564. 124cm x 170cm. Scanned: Robert Hughes, Piero Bianconi for Classics of World Art. The Complete Paintings of Brueghel. (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, English Edition, 1969).

Fig. 14 - Rwandan Refugee Camp of Benako 1994, in Migrations by Sebastião Salgado.

Photograph taken by Author, 24 April 2019.

Fig. 15 - Sebastião Salgado with his book Genesis: Taschen https://www.forbes.pl/life/wydarzenia/genesis-unikalne-zdjecia-sebastiao-salgado/j9j22q4 [Accessed 5th May 2019].

Fig. 16 - South Kivu from the series The Enclave. Richard Mosse, 2012.

https://www.aestheticamagazine.com/changing-views/ [Accessed 15 December 2019].

Fig. 17- Film Stills from The Clockwork Orange dir. by Stanley Kubrick (Warner Bros, 1971). Captured by Author.

Fig. 18 - Richard Mosse: The Enclave Exhibition at the Jack Shainman Gallery, 2014. Image courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery, photographed by Zach Hilty, 2014. https://www.jackshainman.com/exhibitions/ past/2014/richard-mosse/ [Accessed 20 April 2019].

Fig. 19 - The Enclave, six-screen Installation at the Venice Biennale 2013. Stills from Richard Mosse: The Impossible Image. Captured by Author.

Fig. 20 - Detail of Moria Camp, Lesbos, Greece. Richard Mosse, 2017. http://www.richardmosse.com/ projects/heat-maps [Accessed 5th June 2o19].

Fig. 21 - ‘Incoming’ at the Curve, Barbican. Richard Mosse, 2017. https://www.theupcoming.co.uk/2017/02/16/ richard-mosse-incoming-at-the-barbican-exhibition-review/ [Accessed 5th June 2019].

Fig. 22- The Music Over The Ruins of Aleppo, Syria. Joseph Eid, 2017 https://correspondent.afp.com/music-over-ruins-aleppo [Accessed: 5th April 2019].

Fig. 23 - The Music Over The Ruins of Aleppo webpage, AFP Correspondent. https://correspondent.afp.com/ music-over-ruins-aleppo [Accessed 18th May 2019]. Screenshot by Author.

Fig. 24 - The Music Over The Ruins of Aleppo, on CNN . 19th March 2017. https://twitter.com/ MehsenMekhtfe/status/843590442906238977 [Accessed 18th May 2019]. Screenshot by Author.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books Barbican, Richard Mosse: Incoming 15 February - 23 April 2017 (City of London: Barbican Centre, 2017).

Berger, John, About Looking (London: Bloomsbury, 1980).

Bruder, Margaret, Aestheticising Violence, Or How to Do Things With Style (Department of Comparative Literature, Indiana University, 2003).

Comins, Benton J, Rewriting, Violence, And Theatre: Bertolt Brecht’s ‘The Measures Take’ And Heiner Muller’s ‘Mauser’ (University of North Carolina Press, 2002).

Crawford, Mathew, The World Beyond Your Head: How to Flourish in an Age of Distraction (Penguin Books ltd, 2016) Eicker, Eva and Brian Dillon (ed.) Deutsche Borse Photography Prize 2014 (London: Photographers' Gallery, 2014).

Fenton, James, The Memory of War and Children in Exile : Poems 19681983 (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1983).

Hirsche, Robert, Seizing the Light: a Social History of Photography (New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009).

Hughes, Robert, Piero Bianconi (Classics of World Art), The Complete Paintings of Brueghel (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, English Edition, 1969).

Knightley, Philip, The First Casualty: From Crimea to Vietnam: The War Correspondent as Hero, Propagandist and Myth Maker (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1975).

Komins, Benton Jay, ‘Rewriting, Violence, and Theatre: Bertolt Brecht’s The Measures Taken and Heiner Müller’s Mauser’ The Comparatist, 26:May (2002) 99-119.

Licht, Fred, Goya : The Origins of The Modern Temper In Art (London : J. Murray, 1980).

Mehrez, Aïcha (ed.) Don McCullin (London: Tate Publishing Ltd, 2019).

Nelson, Maggie, The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012).

Salgado, Sebastião, Migrations: Humanity in Transition (New York: Aperture Foundation, 2000).

Salgado, Sebastião, Eduardo Galeano and Fred Ritchin, Sebastião Salgado: An Uncertain Grace (London: Thames and Hudson Ltd. 1990).

Scarry, Elaine, The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1985).

Sontag, Susan, Regarding the Pain of Others (London: Penguin Books, 2003).

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Spencer, Robin, The Aesthetic Movement (London: Studio Vista, 1972).

Whelan, Richard, This Is War! Robert Capa At Work (New York: International Centre of Photography, 2007).

Woolf, Virginia, Three Guineas (London: Hogarth Press, 1938).

Online Articles + Websites Amnesty International, ’The Syrian Archive’ (2018) <https://www.amnesty.ie/country/syria/> [accessed 13 December 2018].

Doumay, Abd, ’The Others’, AFP Correspondent (30 August 2016) https://correspondent.afp.com/others [Accessed: 5th April 2019].

Drash, Wayne, ’Abu Ghraib Photos were ‘big shock’, Undermined US Ideals’ CNN (20 May 2009) http:// edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/05/18/detainee.abuse.lookback/index.html [Accessed 15th June 2019].

Eid, Joseph, ’The Music Over the Ruins of Aleppo’, AFP Correspondent (15 March 2017), https:// correspondent.afp.com/music-over-ruins-aleppo [Accessed 18th May 2019].

Gresle, Yvette, ’Oversaturated: The Problem with Richard Mosse’s photography’ Apollo Magazine (20 June 2014) https://www.apollo-magazine.com/oversaturated-problem-richard-mosses-photography/ [Accessed 23rd April 2019].

Katz, Andrew, ‘The Man on the Bed’, TIME, (14 March 2017), https://time.com/4701247/aleppo-syria-carcollector/ [Accessed 18th May 2019].

Kermeliotis, Teo, ‘Stunning Congo Artwork Shows Conflict in a Different Light’, CNN, June 5 2013 http:// edition.cnn.com/2013/06/05/world/africa/congo-richard-mosse-the-enclave/index.html [Accessed 29th April 2019].

MacSwan, Angus, ‘War photographer McCullin's retrospective shows ‘appalling things humans do’, Reuters, (February 5, 2019) https://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKCN1PU1K6? feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews [Accessed: 2nd April 2019].

Meeker, Mary, ’Internet Trends Report 2018’, Kleiner Perkins (May 30 2018) https:// www.kleinerperkins.com/perspectives/internet-trends-report-2018/ [Accessed 1st July 2019] Seymour, Tom, ‘Don McCullin on the costs of Ambition and the Future of Photojournalism’, Creative Review, (February 19 2019) https://www.creativereview.co.uk/don-mccullin-on-the-costs-of-ambitionand-the-future-of-photojournalism/ [Accessed 1st July 2019].

Sontag, Susan, ‘Looking at War: Photography’s view of devastation and death’ The New Yorker ( 1 December 2002) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/12/09/looking-at-war [Accessed: 18th May 2019].

Stearns, Jason ‘Shocking Pink’, The Guardian (May 28 2011), https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/ 2011/may/28/richard-mosse-infrared-photos-congo [Accessed 29th April 2019] 75

Thanoor, Ishaan, Twitter (13 March 2017) https://twitter.com/ishaantharoor/status/841314017830412288 [Accessed 19th May 2019] The Syrian Archive, ‘About: Mission, Vision and Workflow’, The Syrian Archive (2018) https:// syrianarchive.org/en/about [Accessed 29th June 2019].

The Tate ‘Don McCullin on Shell-Shocked US Marine’ The Tate (15 December 2014) https:// www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/mccullin-shell-shocked-us-marine-the-battle-of-hue-ar01201/don-mccullinon-shell [Accessed 16th June 2019].

Teicher, Jordan, ‘Is War Photography Beautiful or Damned?’, News Republic (19 November 2015) <https://newrepublic.com/article/124034/warphotographybeautifuldamned> [accessed 14 December 2018].

Victoria and Albert Museum, ‘An Introduction to the Aesthetic Movement’ Victoria & Albert Museum https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/an-introduction-to-the-aesthetic-movement [Accessed 15th April 2019].

Wroe, Nicholas, ‘Man with the Golden Eye’ The Guardian (10 June 2000) https://www.theguardian.com/ artanddesign/2000/jun/10/photography.art [Accessed 16th April 2019].

Documentaries + Films Full Metal Jacket dir. by Stanley Kubrick (Warner Bros, 1987).

Standard Operating Procedure: The War on Terror will be Photographed dir. by Errol Morris (Sony Pictures Classics, 2008).

The Clockwork Orange dir. by Stanley Kubrick (Warner Bros, 1971).

The Enclave dir. Richard Mosse (Aperture Foundation, 2013).

Vietnam: The Camera at War dir. by David Upshal (BBC2, 1995).

Online Video + Interviews Frieze, Richard Mosse: The Impossible Image dir. by Jesse Watt on Vimeo (May 28 2013) [Accessed 15th December].

The Works, Richard Mosse: Extended Interview with John Kelly, online video recording, Youtube, (14th February 2014) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbSDv5v_x4> [accessed 14 December 2018].

Exhibitions ‘Richard Mosse: The Enclave’ Irish Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2013.

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‘Richard Mosse: Incoming’ The Barbican Curve, 15 February – 23 April 2017.

‘Don McCullin’ The Tate Britain, 5 February - 5 May 2019.

‘Stanley Kubrick: The Exhibition’ Design Museum, 26 April - 15 September 2019.

FURTHER READING

Hamid, Mohsin, Exit West (London: Penguin Books ltd, 2018).

McCullin, Donald, Is Anyone Taking Any Notice? (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1973).

Morris, Errol, Believing is Seeing: Observations on the Mysteries of Photography (London: Penguin Books ltd, 2011).

Sennet, Richard, The Foreigner: Two Essays on Exile (London: Notting Hill Editions Ltd, 2011).

Shields, David, War Is Beautiful (New York: Powerhouse Books, 2015).

Strange, Carolyn ‘Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange as art against torture’ Crime, Media, Culture, 6:3 (2010), 267–284. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741659010382332

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APPENDIX The following includes photographs that were considered during the writing of this paper, for a greater understanding and appreciation for the photographers and the photo series analysed above.

Don McCullin in Vietnam

A Young Dead Vietnamese Soldier with His Possessions, 1968.

Scanned: Tate Modern. Don McCullin. (London: Tate Publishing of Tate Enterprises Ltd, 2019) p.41.

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Shell-Shocked Soldier, Vietnam. Don McCullin, 1968.

Scanned: Tate Modern. Don McCullin. (London: Tate Publishing of Tate Enterprises Ltd, 2019) p.44.

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US Marines Tormenting an Old Vietnamese Civilian. Don McCullin, 1968.

Scanned: Tate Modern. Don McCullin. (London: Tate Publishing of Tate Enterprises Ltd, 2019) p.43

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Old Vietnamese Man. Don McCullin, 1968.

Scanned: Tate Modern. Don McCullin. (London: Tate Publishing of Tate Enterprises Ltd, 2019) p.47

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SebastiĂŁo Salgado, Migrations

Rwandan Refugee Camp of Benako, Tanzania. SebastiĂŁo Salgado, 1994.

Scanned: Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. (New York: Aperture Foundation, 2000) p.183.

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Spectre of Hope SebastiĂŁo Salgado, 1994. Scanned: Salgado, Sebastiao.

Migrations: Humanity in Transition. (New York: Aperture Foundation, 2000) p.155.

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The Refugeesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Drama in Former Yugoslavia. SebastiĂŁo Salgado, 1999.

Scanned: Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. (New York: Aperture Foundation, 2000) p.142.

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The Refugees Drama in Former Yugoslavia. SebastiĂŁo Salgado, 1994.

Scanned: Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. (New York: Aperture Foundation, 2000) p.116.

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Repatriation in Mozambique. SebastiĂŁo Salgado, 1994.

Scanned: Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. (New York: Aperture Foundation, 2000) p.245.

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Richard Mosse, The Enclave

Drag, South Kivu. The Enclave. Richard Mosse, 2012. https://www.aestheticamagazine.com/changing-views/ [Accessed 15 December 2019].

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Safe From Harm. The Enclave. Richard Mosse, 2012. http://www.richardmosse.com/projects/the-enclave [Accessed 3rd July 2019].

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Higher Ground. The Enclave. Richard Mosse, 2012. http://www.richardmosse.com/projects/the-enclave [Accessed 3rd July 2019].

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Richard Mosse, Heat Maps + Incoming

Detail of Idomeni Camp. Richard Mosse, 2017. http://www.richardmosse.com/projects/heat-maps [Accessed 3rd July 2019].

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Still Frame from Incoming. Three Screen Installation. Richard Mosse, 2017. http://www.richardmosse.com/projects/incoming [Accessed 3rd July 2019].

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Still Frame from Incoming. Three Screen Installation. Richard Mosse, 2017. http://www.richardmosse.com/projects/incoming [Accessed 3rd July 2019].

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Still Frame from Incoming. Three Screen Installation. Richard Mosse, 2017. http://www.richardmosse.com/projects/incoming [Accessed 3rd July 2019].

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Joseph Eid, The Music Over the Ruins of Aleppo

The Music Over The Ruins of Aleppo, Syria. Joseph Eid, 2017 https://correspondent.afp.com/music-over-ruins-aleppo [Accessed: 5th April 2019].

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The Music Over The Ruins of Aleppo, Syria. Joseph Eid, 2017 https://correspondent.afp.com/music-over-ruins-aleppo [Accessed: 5th April 2019].

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From the Ashes of Aleppo, A Sound of Hope. Joseph Eid, 2017 https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/ashes-aleppo-sound-hope [Accessed: 29th May 2019]. Screenshot by Author

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From the Ashes of Aleppo, A Sound of Hope. Joseph Eid, 2017 https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/ashes-aleppo-sound-hope [Accessed: 29th May 2019]. Screenshot by Author

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From the Ashes of Aleppo, A Sound of Hope. Joseph Eid, 2017 https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/ashes-aleppo-sound-hope [Accessed: 29th May 2019]. Screenshot by Author

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From the Ashes of Aleppo, A Sound of Hope. Joseph Eid, 2017 https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/ashes-aleppo-sound-hope [Accessed: 29th May 2019]. Screenshot by Author

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