Abu Ghraib Abuse Images: From Perverse War Trophies through Internet Based War Porn to Artistic Representations and Beyond

Abstract

This chapter makes a detailed examination of the iconic image of prisoner abuse which has emerged from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The image shows a hooded prisoner, who is holding his arms outstretched - with wires in each hand - in fear of being electrocuted. This chapter’s author explores the issue that contrary to many previous commentaries on what makes images newsworthy, here it is not the violence. Rather, this image has managed to maintain its news-value and has obtained the status ‘iconic’ because of the elusiveness of the images symbolic side. The image holds explicit references to both the Ku Klux Klan and also Christ’s Crucifixion. This chapter concludes by showing how the abuse image has now become a powerful weapon against American Foreign Policy and also an effective poster-image for the anti-war lobby who have parodied it on a number of occasions for the purpose of their campaign against the War in Iraq. So, to sum up briefly, on the iconic image of Abu Ghraib abuses’ journey from explicit war trophy through its time on illicit Internet niche war-porn catalogues and its re-appropriation as an anti-war symbol. Today, it exists, parodied within the high glamour of Italian Vogue. When once images of abuse within war were tabooed - today, such images have successfully crossed over into the mainstream. This is our current position; we are all complicit through our awareness of these war abuses and indeed the symbolic side of this iconic image from Abu Ghraib.