Picturing Peace: Photography, Conflict Transformation, and Peacebuilding (New Encounters: Arts, Cultures, Concepts)

How can photographers, curators, and editors convey narratives of peace and not just stories of war? Providing interdisciplinary and international perspectives on timely debates, Picturing Peace explores humanitarianism and visual culture, community collaboration, collective memory, and imagined futures for creating and sustaining of civil societies. How things look and are perceived are not superficial issues; when it comes to war and conflict, photography is vitally relevant not only to documenting violence, but also to rebuilding peaceful societies. The volume examines the intersecting issues of visual culture and peacebuilding, including: the genealogies of photography and conflict, decolonisation and the gaze, the significance of archival material, as well as recent peacebuilding initiatives. Exploring multiple forms of peace photography, the volume offers a range of voices from preeminent international scholars, as well as interviews with practicing photographers who have experience of working with post-conflict communities. As such, the book provides a timely investigation into the politics of representation, questioning how photographers might help foster social relationships, transform conflicts, and reconcile communities in the image-oriented cultures.

Tom Allbeson is Reader in Media and Photographic History at the School of Journalism, Media and Culture at Cardiff University, UK.

Pippa Oldfield is Senior Lecturer in Photography at Teesside University, UK, and former Head of Programme at Impressions Gallery, Bradford.

Jolyon Mitchell is Principal of St John's College, Durham and a Professor specialising in Religion, Violence and Peacebuilding at Durham University, UK. His research and teaching focuses on religion, violence and peacebuilding with particular reference to the visual arts. He has published extensively on the uses of different media arts in promoting peace and inciting violence.