The Ethics of Seeing: Photography and Twentieth-Century German History ed. by Jennifer Evans, Paul Betts, and Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Ethics of Seeing: Photography and Twentieth-Century German History ed. by Jennifer Evans, Paul Betts, and Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann Teresa Walch The Ethics of Seeing: Photography and Twentieth-Century German History. Edited by Jennifer Evans, Paul Betts, and Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann. New York: Berghahn, 2018. Pp. 306. Cloth $149.00. ISBN 978-1785337284. Practitioners of visual history have shown that photographs can do much more than illustrate previously formulated arguments. An outpouring of recent monographs, collected volumes, and public exhibitions have begun exploring photography's agency in modern history, particularly during World War II and the Holocaust. The collection of essays in The Ethics of Seeing moves beyond war and dictatorship to probe not only how documentary photography recorded German history throughout the twentieth century, but also how it engendered new modes of seeing, thus actively shaping history as well. Introductory chapters by Jennifer Evans and Elizabeth Edwards provide critical historiographical, theoretical, and methodological anchors for the volume. When viewed not as mere evidence but as a multilayered medium, they argue, photography has the potential to illuminate multiple renderings of the past and radically reshape the discipline of history. The subsequent case studies investigate photography as an ethical practice in twentieth-century Germany. They reveal how the selective decisions [End Page 413] of photographers and publishers—from subject choice, to staging and composition, presentation (scale, cropping, montaging, omission), and contextualization (especially via captioning)—consciously or unconsciously fostered conventional or alternative "ways of seeing." These contributions underscore the inherent fluidity of photography and its amenability to myriad interpretations across time and space. Germany's authoritarian regimes often deliberately employed amateur and professional photography to bolster official narratives. Claudia Siebrecht examines how Else Sonnenberg's personal photographs reinforced imperial Germany's claims of a civilizing mission in South West Africa. Elizabeth Harvey illustrates how photos invoking themes of Heimat, community, and a shared racial lineage helped justify the resettlement of more than half a million ethnic Germans during World War II. Julia Torrie describes how photos taken by German soldiers stationed in France blended out the violent aspects of German occupation and helped the men view themselves as harmless guests or tourists rather than aggressors. The authors are careful to note that, despite their ostensible alignment with state policies, these photos were open to alternative readings that might have provoked critical, even humanitarian responses. At other times, photography advanced subversive agendas that challenged official visual practices. The German Democratic Republic (GDR) aimed to harness photography to train a new "socialist self," and yet Sarah E. James demonstrates how it accommodated Edmund Kesting's 1950s abstract portraits. Inconsistencies in the GDR's photographic policies endured into the 1970s and 1980s, as evidenced by Candice M. Hamelin's discussion of Gundula Schulze Eldowy's photos of buildings in disrepair and the elderly and infirm. The camera also became a weapon in the hands of oppressed GDR citizens. Analyzing photographs published in Wolfgang Schneider's Leipziger Demontagebuch, Paul Betts explains how photos taken by protestors in autumn 1989 documented police aggression in Leipzig and recorded the increasing confidence and growing strength of the mass demonstrations. West German citizens also used subversive photography for personal and political ends. Jennifer Evans examines the subjectivities of Herbert Tobias's erotic photographs of rent boys, noting that they constituted a bold act of self-expression in the morally normative postwar era. Anna Ross shows how photographs taken by residents and activists in Berlin-Kreuzberg helped strengthen a collective Kiez identity and forge a collective response to the municipality's disruptive practices of reurbanization in the 1970s and 1980s. Concerted efforts to harness photography for humanitarian purposes featured in each of Germany's postwar eras. Annelie Ramsbrock shows how Ernst Friedrich's 1924 book Krieg dem Kriege! successfully recontextualized portraits of "facially wounded" World War I veterans, initially published in scientific journals to showcase advancements in reconstructive surgery, to posit a searing, pacifist message that resonates even today. Photos played an equally important role in the post-1945 era, argues [End Page 414] Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann. Abandoning initial triumphalist and vengeful images, British and American photographers began capturing scenes of German suffering and resilience that helped cultivate...