Iconography, Iconicity and the Algerian War
Boiry-Notre-Dame, France © Nicholas Waring
A major aim of our project is to explore the photographic representation of the conflict both at the time and subsequently, in order to determine the iconography of the Algerian conflict. In considering the contemporary reporting of the conflict, we will examine the important axis of mediation linking photojournalists on the ground with mass circulation French news weeklies such as Paris-Match, which play a vital role in consolidating and imposing certain interpretations of events. Drawing on the notion of the ‘social biography’ of images theorised by Elizabeth Edwards among others, we will seek to identify and trace those images which have come to sum up or stand for the conflict through their reappearance in different contexts and at different times, and consider the ways in which that iconography has been disseminated and managed. At the same time, we will explore the reasons why the Algerian War appears to lack the obvious body of iconic images that stand in metonymical relationship to other significant conflicts such as the Vietnam War and the Mexican Revolution.
