Habbo Knoch: Schockierende Bilder. 1945 und die moralische Ikonographie des 20. Jahrhunderts

Abstract

Shocking Images. 1945 and the Moral Iconography of the Twentieth Century
This essay addresses the relation between morality and photographic images in the Twentieth Century as a subject for historical analysis. Since the invention of photography and its use to document political and military violence, images have played a major role in shaping our idea of violence, our morally defined ways to address it politically, and our moral sentiments towards it for more than a century. Using two recent publications on war photography and on Allied “atrocity films” as starting points, the essay argues that a critical analysis of photography as mediator between violence and society requires an in-depth reading both of iconographic patterns and structures, and of the moral appropriation of images.

Besprochen werden u. a.: Hüppauf, B.: Fotografie im Krieg (67); Weckel, U.: Beschämende Bilder (69)