Forthcoming book, ‘Imaging Peace’ to be published in 2025 by Edinburgh University Press.’
Photographic images play a potent role in war. Historically, photography has been masterfully used to drive division, to support war efforts, to document atrocity and to inspire resistance. But we have neglected to consider how photography might be harnessed to contribute to re-building after armed conflict and violence has subsided. It’s a glaring omission in our hyper accelerated visual age when images play such a defining role in framing our politics and perceptions of each other. What contribution do images make, not only to representing peace, but to actively shaping and embedding it
Images of war impress so easily. They are so much more ‘interesting’ or ‘gripping’.
Peace is not.
Well, it’s not that peace is boring for most, it’s just that peaceful things don’t make great news.
Why does peace have such a bad press?’