A Volatile Picture War and the Political Work of Photography in Sri Lanka
Vindhya Buthpitiya|Padma Kaimal|K. Sivaramakrishna|Anand A. Yang
ISBN 10: 0295754435 ISBN 13: 9780295754437
Published by University of Washington Press, 2026
New
Hardcover
From
moluna, Greven, Germany
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
AbeBooks Seller since July 9, 2020
This specific item is no longer available.
About this Item
Description:
Seller Inventory # 2751343153
Synopsis:
Photography as witness and weapon amid civil war
This groundbreaking ethnography explores how, in the context of Sri Lanka’s protracted civil war and its turbulent aftermath, photography has become bound to the Tamil political imagination. From state-commissioned images meant to surveil and rebel documentation of armed resistance, to the fragile memorials created from identity photographs of the disappeared, A Volatile Picture traces the making and moving of images across borders, communities, and generations. Studio portraits, passport pictures, family albums, atrocity photography, social media posts, and more act not only as records of loss and horror but also as vital tools for protest, solidarity, and the realization of alternate political futures. Drawing on transnational archival and ethnographic encounters and long-term fieldwork in northern Sri Lanka, Vindhya Buthpitiya situates photography as both a volatile medium and a political practice. Photographs emerge here as incendiary agents―simultaneously evidencing and triggering violence, sustaining memory, and inciting new visions of liberation.
This is the first in-depth study of Tamil photographic practices in Sri Lanka, offering a major contribution to the anthropology of war, visual culture, and South Asian studies. Richly researched and deeply humane, A Volatile Picture demonstrates how, amid devastation and displacement, photographs continue to generate truths, solidarities, and hopes that resist erasure.
About the Author:
Vindhya Buthpitiya is lecturer in the Department of Social Anthropology at University of St Andrews, Scotland, and coeditor of Citizens of Photography: The Camera and the Political Imagination.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Bibliographic Details
Title: A Volatile Picture War and the Political ...
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Publication Date: 2026
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: New