Afterimages: photography and U.S. foreign policy

Abstract

[Kennedy] (Univ. College Dublin) builds on recent scholarship that situates photojournalism as a public art form. He studies photographers who have gone beyond the more simplistic approach of spot news in foreign reporting into documentary photography that critically examines the impact of American foreign policy and military violence.

@54-0076 TR820 2015-20156 CIP Kennedy, Liam. Afterimages: photography and U.S. foreign policy. Chicago, 2016. 220p index afp ISBN 9780226337265 cloth, $45.00; ISBN 9780226337432 ebook, contact publisher for price

Kennedy (Univ. College Dublin) builds on recent scholarship that situates photojournalism as a public art form. He studies photographers who have gone beyond the more simplistic approach of spot news in foreign reporting into documentary photography that critically examines the impact of American foreign policy and military violence. Kennedy examines photographic work that shows the aftereffects of American military excursions in Vietnam during the 1960s and 1970s, Iran and Central America in the 1980s, and into Somalia, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan during the 1990s and into the 21st century. He also studies documentary photography of the homeland security state since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. This work shows how photojournalists have evolved from documenting war and conflict to adopting a humanitarian dialectic for re-presenting world conflicts. Kennedy admirably extends our appreciation for the work of photojournalists such as Philip Jones Griffiths, David Burnett, Gilles Peress, and Susan Meiselas, who document violence and its effects, brought about largely by American foreign policy, in a way that intersects the worlds of art, politics, and the news media. Summing Up: *** Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through professionals.-J. L. Aucoin, University of South Alabama