Thursday Idea Blog #2 An exploration of the idea of photography as a use of force:

An exploration of the idea of photography as a use of force:

In activist literature and in modern Anarchist analysis there is an idea that power can be categorized into three modes.

The first: Power Over
When power is experienced or used in the form of coercive force. Power gained by oppressive social and economic conditions, and systematic violence impressed upon one group by another.

The second: Power With
When power is experienced or used in the form of collective action against unjust conditions or systems experienced in whole, part or symbolically by members of the collective. A common idea that is directly related to this kind of power is solidarity.
Solidarity can be defined as:
noun, plural -ties.
Union or fellowship arising from common responsibilities and interests, as between members of a group or between classes, peoples, etc.: to promote solidarity among union members.
Community of feelings, purposes, etc.
Community of responsibilities and interests.

(Definition from dictionary.com)

The Third: Power Under
When power is experienced or used in the form of actively or passively giving up the power of an individual or group to another group or system.

I would like to attempt to examine the use of photographs and the practice of photography through this lens in order to tease out the ways in which we experience and employ photography as an act power or use of force.

Some quick examples that may lead to an understanding of how this analysis might play out.

Power Over:
In the Early 1900’s the Roma populations of Eastern Europe were rounded up and confined to specific geographic locations outside of cites and their populations documented. Some of the first uses of photography in the criminal justice system can be found to have been employed during this time. The mugshot has become a common element in the visual language of criminal justice. The first recorded use of the photograph in the form of a mugshot and mugshot book was during this period. Roma populations were photographed and the images held with the local authorities or police forces in a process of criminalizing whole groups of people without charging every individual. As such the entire population through the means of the photograph were shaded with suspicion and subject to social systems of domination by local authorities.

Power With:
The photograph as an act of solidarity has been evidenced by the tradition of modern war photography. Whether intentionally or not the photographs of the Vietnam War and atrocities committed therein added a visual texture to the news or massacre and destruction at the hands of western powers. There is a strong tradition of leftist photojournalists taking their craft to conflicts in support of conflicts in support of social movements. One notable photographer who acted in solidarity with embattled social groups is Robert Capa as he documenting the Marxist and Anarchist forces during the Spanish Civil War.

Power Under:
Power Over could be seen as being experienced by the average American citizen through the means of advertising and mainstream media. The effects can be seen in the links between body image issues and the depiction of women and men in advertising. In politics and the creation of culture the process can be seen as giving up the power to create culture and define political issues by interacting with these arenas as passive consumers rather than image makers and producers.