Symposium

Air War and Photography

Friday 22 October 2010

This paper considers the relation between photography and the modern invention of air war. Against air war’s technological innovation in imagining and enacting terror, photography is here regarded as a potent vehicle of civilian defense. Lee Miller’s images of the London Blitz serve as the exemplar, as instances of what Jacques Rancière (2008) calls the “politics of aesthetics.” This means not only regarding Miller’s images as deliberate political intentions and effects, but also using this example to think through how pictures are politics. Like the schemata of dreamwork, the power of these images lies in their capacity to convey the unreality of air war’s effects. Their force lies in the illumination of everyday life as permeated with fantasy. Or put differently, Miller teaches us that a form of political resistance can be found in unconscious thought.

To cite this document:
Sliwinski, Sharon. 2010. “Air War and Photography”. Within Imaginaires du présent: Photographie, politique et poétique de l'actualité. Symposium hosted by Figura, Centre de recherche sur le texte et l'imaginaire. Montréal, Université du Québec à Montréal, 22 octobre 2010. Document vidéo. Available online: l’Observatoire de l’imaginaire contemporain. <https://oic.uqam.ca/en/communications/air-war-and-photography>. Accessed on May 1, 2023.
Historical Periodization:
Geographical Context:
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Problematics:
Objects and Cultural Practices:
Figures and Imaginary:
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