A new book by Jason Bate has just been published by Bloomsbury Academic. Photography in the Great War asks what is it to study historically positioned vulnerabilities in regard to patients in emerging medical photograph collections? What is the impact of the violent nature of institutional archives and imperial modes of ordering on marginalised and suppressed communities? Who exactly is being protected by the ethical protocols and conventions here? Is it the institution, the author, the reader, the deceased historical figure or distant relatives? At what point does or should the subject’s confidentiality take effect? When does a person, their name, their image have a right to privacy and anonymity and when not, and who gets to decide?
In Photography in the Great War, Jason Bate draws on a rich set of materials to examine postwar experiences of ex-servicemen who were facially-disfigured during the First World War. Weaving together medical, institutional, amateur and family photographic practices and processes under a social history framework, he underscores overlooked aspects of these men’s continued hardships after returning home from the front. In particular, a focus is on the private sphere of the family and the complicated world of employment that disfigured veterans navigated on their return.
Little attention has hitherto been paid to the aftercare of disfigured veterans once discharged from the army, or the long-term impact on individuals, and the sense of burden felt by families and local communities. In addressing this neglected area, the chapters here illuminate different practices of photography by doctors, nurses, press agencies, and families across the generations to challenge our perceptions of the personal traumas of soldiers and civilians.
Photography in the Great War. The Ethics of Emerging Medical Collections from the Great War
Jason Bate
Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022
See more here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/photography-in-the-great-war-9781350122062/
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