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Expert analyzes Abu Ghraib photos
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Also by Caroline McCormack:
- Expert analyzes Abu Ghraib photos (October 27, 2006)
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by Caroline McCormack
Friday, October 27, 2006
Though stories of the tortures at Abu Ghraib prison are no longer at the forefront of news from Iraq, the past occurrences sparked dialogue within the Madison intellectual community Thursday.
Wendy Kozol, professor of women's studies at Oberlin College, spoke at the Chazen Musuem of Art in a discussion titled "Abu Ghraib and the Question of Ethical Spectatorship."
Kozol analyzed the role the American public played in the event by viewing Abu Ghraib torture photographs. She said that the photos ultimately lead to the "mobilization of shame" within the United States.
"The dehumanizing violence of the pictures allowed people to be horrified without seeking significant change, using only their feelings of guilt and shame to validate inactiveness," she said.
By simply looking at the pictures, Kozol added, viewers are in a way asked to participate in the acts, which in fact implicates them in the staging of torture.
Throughout the discussion, Kozol asserted she was not suggesting that citizens shy away from looking at photos of wartime atrocities; she asked that they do something about them.
"It isn't enough to say we're horrified — voyeurism doesn't solve anything," she said.
Although the photographs were addressed by President George W. Bush and other politicians, Kozol said authority figures did this mostly for publicity.
Kozol also addressed the various elements of photography used in staging the 1,800 Abu Ghraib photos that were taken.
"Many of the photos used low-angle shots to show defeat and helplessness and heavily focused on the humiliation of Arab masculinity," she said. "Issues of race, gender and sexuality were all confronted in a horrific way."
Kozol described how most people rationalized soldiers' actions by arguing that it was a select group of soldiers without "taking into account that America has a history of proudly taking snapshots of torturous acts."
Among other students at the panel discussion, University of Wisconsin freshman Anna Van Tuinen said she was initially directed by a professor to attend.
"We were reading a book about how sexual torture was used in Nazi Germany, so I thought this lecture would be interesting to hear about a more current example of torture," she said. "And after hearing Professor Kozol speak, it made me realize how politically apathetic I was towards the photos."
Van Tuinen added the lecture left her more introspective in terms of what she can do to improve her role as a citizen.
"It's nice to come and learn about things in a different context outside of the classroom, and I'm hoping to carry some of these things with me," she said.
But Kozol also noted the importance of not allowing pictures of war to completely captivate an entire nation.
"It marginalizes the daily horrors of war by focusing on specific instances, when really military torture goes on all over the place, all the time," she said. "The most important thing that we can do is educate and discourage apathy."
