Humanitarian Photography
A History

This book investigates the historical evolution of 'humanitarian photography' - the mobilization of photography in the service of humanitarian initiatives across state boundaries.

Heide Fehrenbach (Edited by), Davide Rodogno (Edited by)

9781107639713, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 September 2016

366 pages, 60 b/w illus.
23 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.56 kg

'The most important contribution of this volume is the development of a new historically useful concept with ramifications for the history of photography and, more broadly, for the visual history of the contemporary world … By the end of the volume, readers will have gained a thorough historical overview of a distinct photographic practice, with case studies from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.' Ana Maria Mauad, Society for U.S. Intellectual History, Book Reviews (https://s-usih.org/)

For well over a century, humanitarians and their organizations have used photographic imagery and the latest media technologies to raise public awareness and funds to alleviate human suffering. This volume examines the historical evolution of what we today call 'humanitarian photography' - the mobilization of photography in the service of humanitarian initiatives across state boundaries - and asks how we can account for the shift from the fitful and debated use of photography for humanitarian purposes in the late nineteenth century to our current situation in which photographers market themselves as 'humanitarian photographers'. This book investigates how humanitarian photography emerged and how it operated in diverse political, institutional, and social contexts, bringing together more than a dozen scholars working on the history of humanitarianism, international organizations and nongovernmental organizations, and visual culture in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.

Introduction. The morality of sight: humanitarian photography in history Heide Fehrenbach and Davide Rogodno
1. Picturing pain: evangelicals and the politics of pictorial humanitarianism in an imperial age Heather Curtis
2. Framing atrocity: photography and humanitarianism Christina Twomey
3. The limits of exposure: atrocity photographs in the Congo reform campaign Kevin Grant
4. Photography, visual culture, and the Armenian genocide Peter Balakian
5. Developing the humanitarian image in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century China Caroline Reeves
6. Photography, cinema, and the quest for influence: the international committee of the Red Cross in the wake of the first world war Francesca Piana
7. Children and other civilians: photography and the politics of humanitarian image-making Heide Fehrenbach
8. Sights of benevolence: UNRRA's recipients portrayed Silvia Salvatici
9. All the world loves a picture: the World Health Organization's visual politics, 1948–73 Thomas David and Davide Rodogno
10. 'A' as in Auschwitz, 'B' as in Biafra: the Nigerian civil war, visual narratives of genocide, and the fragmented universalization of the Holocaust Lasse Heerten
11. Finding the right image: British development NGOs and the regulation of imagery Henrietta Lidchi
12. Dilemmas of ethical practice in the production of contemporary humanitarian photography Sanna Nissinen.

Subject Areas: Human rights [JPVH], General & world history [HBG]