Beyond Abu Ghraib: War trophy photography and commemorative violence

Abstract

The commemoration of wartime often has emerged alongside brutal practices waged on the enemy, and the photographed events at Abu Ghraib are no exception. Indeed, the composition of these images builds upon a visual history in which certain dynamics are represented within more general and often innocuous combat photography. This article focuses on two things in order to articulate this premise. The first is to outline how ‘war trophy photography’ is the result of the entwined practices of war photography and trophy collection. Mapped using a combined comparative historical approach and visual semiotics, this research draws upon three images, one from WWI, another from WWII, and one from Abu Ghraib. Specifically to highlight how posing within these photos acknowledges the images as trophies, the second function of this article emerges with the concept of ‘commemorative violence’, as the representation is fused with emotional communication and cultural memory.