In this seminar we shall consider questions related to images of war photography, the history of the genre, the risk encompassed in it, and the impact of these photographs on civilians out of the fighting territories – as these are visualized through the struggles on the mid-20^th c. in Asia.

We shall read several theoretical works that considered the dilemmas of the spectator who views the graphic images coming from the battlefields (Roland Barthes, Judith Butler, Jacques Rancière, etc.). We shall examine the influence of famous iconic photographs related to the battle of Iwo Jima, the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Napalm Girl in Vietnam, and more. We shall discuss how photographs from the Battle of Okinawa nourish even today, the civil struggle against the American bases in Okinawa. We shall view the images of “The Rape of Nanjing.” We will analyze the images from the Korean War and the internal ideological conflict and its representations in contemporaneous photographs, as well as its presence in contemporary Korean photography. We will work with the images of the Vietnam War – from the American Point of View aside the Vietnamese perception and will identify the different emphasizes of each side, and how, through the years, photographers changed their views, and instead of glorifying the fighting troops they expose the cruelty of war and the incurable suffering of civil population.