The violence of colonial photography / Daniel Foliard.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Foliard, Daniel, author.

Standardized Title:

Combattre, punir, photographier. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

War photography--France--History.

War photography.

War photography--Great Britain--History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xix, 348 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

First English-language edition.

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2020.

Language Note:

In English.

Biography/History:

Daniel Foliard is a Professor of Modern History at Université Paris Cité

Summary:

The late nineteenth century saw a rapid increase in colonial conflicts throughout the French and British empires. It was also the period in which the camera began to be widely available. Colonial authorities were quick to recognise the power of this new technology, which they used to humiliate defeated opponents and to project an image of supremacy across the world. Drawing on a wealth of visual materials, from soldiers' personal albums to the collections of press agencies and government archives, this book offers a new account of how conflict photography developed in the decades leading up to the First World War. It explores the various ways in which the camera was used to impose order on subject populations in Africa and Asia and to generate propaganda for the public in Europe, where a visual economy of violence was rapidly taking shape. At the same time, it reveals how photographs could escape the intentions of their creators, offering a means for colonial subjects to push back against oppression.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

List of figures

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Note on translation

Introduction

Repulsion, erasure, and loss of contrast

Photography as power: force and counterforce

Depths of field: darkrooms and conflicts prior to the 1890s

Conflicts in the lens: from the 1890s to the First World War

The public and the private: regimes of visibility

Subversion, denunciation, and manipulation

The enemy's body

Paper cemeteries

Invisible wars? Reflections of extra-European conflicts in France and Britain

Conclusion: ceci n'est pas une illustration

Notes

Selected bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 31 Jul 2026).

Originally published in French: Paris : La Découverte, 2020.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Print version: Foliard, Daniel The Violence of Colonial Photography

ISBN:

9781526163301

1526163306

9781526163325

1526163322

OCLC:

1347058430