Photography, Bearing Witness and the Yugoslav Wars, 1988-2021: Testimonies of Light

202 Pages·2022·10.428 MB·English

by  Paul Lowe

Photography, Bearing Witness and the
Yugoslav Wars, 1988–2021
Combining case studies with theoretical and philosophical insights, this book explores
the role of photography in representing conflict and genocide, both during and after the
break-up of Yugoslavia.
Concentrating on the photographer, this book considers the practice of photojournalism
rather than simply in terms of its consumption and use by the media. The experiences and
working methods of photographers in the field are analysed, showing how practitioners
conceptualised their work and responded to larger questions about neutrality and moral
responsibility. Presenting this ‘active’ form of witness, author Paul Lowe investigates
a crucial ethical paradox faced by photojournalists. Moving beyond the end of the
Yugoslav Wars in 2001, this book also considers the therapeutic and validating potential
of photography for survivors, featuring photographers whose work centres on memory
and reconciliation. Based on archival research, close reading and discourse analyses of
photographs, and interviews with a range of international photographers, this book
explores how photography from this period has been used and remediated in editorial
photojournalism, fine art documentary and advocacy photography.
This book will be of interest to scholars in the history of photography, art and visual
culture, and photojournalism.
Paul Lowe is a Reader in Documentary Photography at the London College of
Communication, University of the Arts, London, UK.
Photography, History: History, Photography
Series Editors:
Professor Emerita Elizabeth Edwards, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK
Professor Patricia Hayes, University of Western Cape, South Africa
Professor Jennifer Tucker, Wesleyan University, USA
This field-defining series explores the inseparable relationship between photography
and history. Bringing together perspectives from a broad disciplinary base it inves-
tigates what wider histories of, for example, wars, social movements, regionality or
nationhood, look like when photography and its social and cultural force are brought
into the centre of analysis.
Photography, Humanitarianism, Empire
Jane Lydon
Victorian Photography, Literature, and the Invention of Modern Memory
Already the Past
Jennifer Green-Lewis
Public Images
Celebrity, Photojournalism, and the Making of the Tabloid Press
Ryan Linkof
Photography and the Making of Eastern Europe
Conflicting Identities, Cultural Heritage (1859–1945)
Ewa Manikowska
Photographing Tutankhamun
Archaeology, Ancient Egypt, and the Archive
Christina Riggs
Photography, Reconstruction and the Cultural History of the Postwar European City
Tom Albeson
Photography, Bearing Witness and the Yugoslav Wars, 1988–2021
Testimonies of Light
Paul Lowe
For more information about this series, please visit:https://www.routledge.com/
Photography-History-History-Photography/book-series/BLPHOPHHP
Photography, Bearing Witness
and the Yugoslav Wars,
1988–2021
Testimonies of Light
Paul Lowe
Cover image: The imprint remains of a Kosov ar Albanian burned by Serbian
forces in Drenica, Kosovo, Jun e 29, 1999, Ron Haviv, VII Photo.
First published 2022
by Routledge
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© 2022 Paul Lowe
The right of Paul Lowe to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-474-24375-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-32478-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-08629-1 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003086291
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For Amra

Contents
List of Figures viii
Preface x
Acknowledgements xi
1 Bearing Witness to Atrocity 1
2 An Economy of Images 18
3 The Fugitive Testimony of Images 31
4 The Ethics of Witnessing 53
5 The Presentational Witness 69
6 The Participatory Witness 86
7 The Prosecutorial Witness 111
8 The Post Factum Witness 136
9 Conclusion: Testimonies of Light 161
Bibliography 170
Index 184
Figures
5.1 Bosnians dodge sniper fire at a peace rally in Sarajevo, Bosnia,
April 6, 1992. They were calling for the preservation of a multi ethnic
society when gunmen from a radical Serb political party opened fire
on them. Ron Haviv/VII 74
5.2 Serbian father and son pose in newly captured territory. Vukovar,
Fall 1991. Ron Haviv/VII 75
5.3 Arkan’s Tigers kill Bosnian Muslim civilians during the first battle for
Bosnia in Bijeljina, Bosnia, March 31, 1992. The Serbian paramilitary
unit was responsible for killing thousands of people during the Bosnian
war, and Arkan was later indicted for war crimes. This image and the
series that accompanies it were used for evidence in the International
War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Ron Haviv/VII 77
5.4 A Muslim in Bijelina, Bosnia, begs for his life after capture by Arkan’s
Tigers in the spring of 1992. Ron Haviv/VII 78
5.5 Liberty: An exhibition panel of photographs taken in the years 1992
and 1993 of prison camps run independently by Bosnian Serb and
Bosnian Croatian forces as well as the release of Serbian prisoners
to their families. Detention camps include the Bosnian Serb run
Trnopolje and Manjača and the Bosnian Croatian run
Heliodrome camp. Ron Haviv/VII 83
6.1 United Nations Briefing, Vitez, Bosnia, 1993. Gilles Peress/Magnum 93
6.2 Evacuation of wounded near Vitez, Bosnia, 1993. Gilles Peress/Magnum 95
6.3 Bathers at the Miljacka River during a ceasefire, Bosnia, Sarajevo,
1993. Gilles Peress/Magnum 96
6.4 Uncertain paths to peace, Sarajevo. Gilles Peress/Magnum 102
6.5 Kosovar refugees who have just crossed the border into Albania at
Morina on their tractor, 1999. Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum 104
6.6 Albania, Near the town of Kukes, 1999. Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum 107
7.1 Grave at Pilice collective farm near Srebrenica, Bosnia, Srebrenica,
1996. Gilles Peress/Magnum 114
7.2 Naser Mazreku, Kosovo. Gary Knight/VII 124
7.3 Copies made by the author of photographs that the KLA claim were
taken from the bodies of dead Serb soldiers. Gary Knight/VII 126
7.4 Habib Zogaj of Tujak holds photographs that he took of ethnic
Albanians he says were executed by Serb military police in his village
on March 1 and April 8, 1999. Gary Knight/VII 126
Figures ix
7.5 The bodies of two recently executed men lie by the side of a dirt
track. Gary Knight/VII 127
7.6 The ethnic Albanian quarter of Peja. Gary Knight/VII 130
7.7 The outline of a body in a house near Meja. Gary Knight/VII 131
7.8 The outline of a body in a house near Meja. Gary Knight/VII 131
8.1 The largest mass grave so far discovered (in 2005) in Bosnia was
opened at Crni Vrh near Caparde in the Republike Srpska (Serbian
controlled Bosnia) in 2003. Reports at the time said the grave might
contain the remains of 600 people killed and buried in the Zvornik
area and then dug up and moved to this location. Judging from
the clothing, all were civilians. It is rumoured that the war crimes
investigators were tipped off as to the existence and location of
the grave by a witness to the reburial; perhaps a guilty conscience,
perhaps as an attempt to plea-bargain. By early in 2004 it was a large,
newly worked-over 40 x 12-metre ditch filled with groundwater and
snow-melt. The surface of this water had iced over in the hard winter.
Simon Norfolk 145
8.2 The agricultural warehouse at Kravica shows the signs of thousands
of newly repaired bullet-holes. Evidence given at the Hague War
Crimes Tribunal suggests that an attempted uprising was punished by
the machine-gunning of several hundred captured Bosniaks in these
sheds. Another 70 individuals were shot beside the river. Many others
were buried nearby, then removed to secondary graves at locations
unknown. Simon Norfolk 147
8.3 Path leading up to the mass grave site at Crni Vrh. To deter anyone
from examining the site, the Serbs seeded the area with landmines.
War crimes investigators have cleared the path and grave site so that
they can recover the bodies, but the paint-marked trees delineate a
still-active minefield. Simon Norfolk 148
8.4 Aluminium waste pond at Petkovici, part of the Karakaj aluminium
factory complex. In the afternoon and evening of July 14, 1995,
several hundred Bosnian men and boys were forced into trucks and
taken to the embankment of the dam that holds back the massive
waste pond of the aluminium plant. They were all killed. Some of
their bodies are believed to have been thrown into the lake, others
piled into nearby mass graves. These graves were later opened and the
bodies moved to secondary sites near to Liplje. Simon Norfolk 149
8.5 Quest for Identity. Ziyah Gafić/VII 154
8.6 Black Portrait. Armin Smailović 155
8.7 Black Portrait. Armin Smailović 155
9.1 Mrtvare Srebrenica. Armin Durgut 167
9.2 Mrtvare Srebrenica. Armin Durgut 168