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Looking back over 150 years of humanitarian action: the photographic archives of the ICRC

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 December 2013

Valérie Gorin
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Abstract

The purpose of this article is to suggest some historical milestones for a retrospective reflection on the photographic archives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). This collection is little used by researchers, although the 120,000 photographs which it contains have helped to forge the symbolism and identity of the institution and to document its operations in accordance with a memory preservation policy which gradually emerged in the course of the 20th century. The photographs shown in this article are divided into three main themes (the ICRC delegate, the context of action, suffering and the victims), in order to make it easier to discuss the key aspects of this tremendous visual heritage which looks at humanitarian action, its protagonists and its beneficiaries from an anthropological and ethnological point of view.

Keywords

photographyhumanitarian actionarchivesmemoryhistoryvisual heritagewar
Type
In Folio
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 94 , Issue 888: ICRC: 150 years of Humanitarian Action , December 2012 , pp. 1349 - 1379
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 2013 

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References

1 Only these 120,000 images are public. In fact, the collection contains some 780,000 items in the form of glass plates, negatives, prints, and digital photographs.

2 The archives of the ICRC contain not only photographs but also recordings, films, and written documents going back to the earliest years of its existence.

3 Sontag, Susan, Regarding the Pain of Others, Picador, New York, 2003, p. 20Google Scholar.

4 Bouvier, Nicolas, Mercier, Michèle, and Bugnion, François, Focus on Humanity: A Century of Photography. Archives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Skira, Geneva, 1995Google Scholar.

5 ICRC, Humanity at War: Frontline Photography since 1860, Lieux Dits, Geneva, 2009Google Scholar.

6 Organised with Agence VII during the campaign ‘Our World. Your Move’, launched by the ICRC in 2009, available at: www.viiphoto.com/our_world.html (last visited 25 January 2013).

7 The exhibition Terrain(s), which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and the work of Dr Marcel Junod, was held at the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum from 7 March until 5 August 2007. See the Museum's website: http://www.redcrossmuseum.ch/en/exhibitions/temporary/archives/field-s-from-solferino-to-guantanamo (last visited 22 October 2013).

8 See, inter alia, S. Sontag, above note 3; and Bouvier, Paul, ‘“Yo lo vi”. Goya witnessing the disasters of war: an appeal to the sentiment of humanity’, in International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 93, No. 884, 2011, pp. 1107–1113CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 We are using the term as it is understood by Barthes – in other words, as language or speech comprising a set of signs (semiology), conveying a message full of signifieds (which can often be related to a set of values). See Barthes, Roland, Mythologies, Seuil, Paris, 1957Google Scholar.

10 Innumerable portraits of the Committee's five founders and their working meetings in emblematic settings in Geneva were in circulation as from the end of the nineteenth century. They demonstrate the relationship of the middle class to photography and the determination to provide documentary evidence, but they are also symbols of patrimonial and institutional legitimacy. These portraits were taken by private photographers such as Paul and Fred Boissonnas. See Paul Boissonnas, Clichés ayant été faits pour le CICR, June 1953, ACICR B AG 074-003.

11 See in particular some reproductions in Clouzet, Etienne (ed.), L'agence internationale des prisonniers de guerre. Geneva, 1914–1918, SADAG, Sécheron-Geneva, 1919Google Scholar.

12 See the analysis of Farré, Sébastien and Schubert, Yan, ‘L'illusion de l'objectif: le délégué du CICR Maurice Rossel et les photographies de Theresienstadt’, in Le Mouvement Social, Vol. 2, No. 227, 2009, pp. 65–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 ‘Utilisation par la Division d'Information de photographies de camps de prisonniers’, 2 January 1944, ACICR G17/Photo.

14 19 September 1952, ACICR B AG 074-003.02.

15 See Third Geneva Convention, Art. 13: ‘Likewise, prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity.’ Prisoners must now give their written consent to the circulation of a photograph from which they can be identified.

16 Note from Robert Melley to Mr Hoffmann, ICRC delegate in Tunisia, 20 July 1957, ACICR B AG 074-004.

17 Brauman, Rony and Backmann, René, Les médias et l'humanitaire, CFPJ, Paris, 1996, p. 24Google Scholar.

18 See, in particular, Frédéric Lambert's analysis of the symbol of the outstretched hand in a well-known photograph of the war in Lebanon in Mythographies: la photo de presse et ses légendes, Edilig, Paris, 1986, pp. 88–91. This symbol functions according to the principle of intericonicity; frequently employed in Judaeo-Christian iconography, it is now a sign that the viewer can immediately identify and decode.

19 See the collection of National Societies' posters shown in John Hutchinson's book, Champions of Charity: War and the Rise of the Red Cross, Westview Press, Boulder, CO, 1996.

20 See ‘Service et laboratoire photographique’, note from Robert Melley to Jean Pictet, 26 October 1959, ACICR B AG 074-004.

21 For example, many of the photographs of the Korean War were received from the commander of the UN coalition forces operating there; this can be seen from a letter from Dr Lehner (ICRC delegation in Korea), the English translation of which is: ‘Please find enclosed … a set of photos taken on that occasion for your documentation. These photos were handed to us by the UN Command and may be published’, ‘Photos related to the Panmunjom mission’, 30 January 1952, ACICR B AG 074-003.02.

22 The term is adopted from Sontag, who considered photographs of violence to be ‘routes of reference’ and ‘totems’ of causes. See S. Sontag, above note 3, p. 67.

23 The general public now mainly thinks of humanitarian action as aid for civilian victims instead of the provision of assistance for wounded soldiers initiated by Dunant.

24 Koenig, Thilo, ‘Voyage de l'autre côté: l'enquête sociale’, in Frizot, M. (ed.), Nouvelle histoire de la photographie, Larousse, Paris, 2001, pp. 346–357Google Scholar.

25 See also the document entitled ‘Liste iconographique’ which itemises all the images requested from or received by the Red Cross between November 1951 and June 1953, ACICR B AG 074-003.

26 See the file ‘Iconographie 1936–1948’, ACICR B CR 230.

27 ‘Rapport sur le service iconographique’, 4 June 1953, ACICR B AG 074-003.02.

28 Prints, negatives, drawings, engravings, diplomas, pictures, posters, and exhibits. Some of this material is no longer stored in the photo library. The posters have been added to the collection of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum.

29 ‘Réorganisation des archives photographiques’, August 1957, ACICR B AG 074-004.

30 One example of such humanist photography was the celebrated exhibition The Family of Man, first shown at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1955.

31 Saouter, Catherine, Le langage visuel, XYZ, Montreal, 1998, p. 140Google Scholar.

32 The rather unusual nature of this mission was documented in Frédéric Gonseth's 2008 film, Citadelle humanitaire. See also the testimony of Dr Pascal Grellety-Bosviel, the mission's doctor, on the ICRC blog in France, available at: http://cicr.blog.lemonde.fr/2012/02/09/yemen-en-1964-la-premiere-mission-humanitaire-du-docteur-pascal/ (last visited 24 January 2013).

33 See above note 29.

34 Boltanski, Luc, Distant Suffering, Morality, Media and Politics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999, pp. 57–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35 Brauman, Rony, L'action humanitaire, Flammarion, Paris, 1995, p. 9Google Scholar.

36 The photo library can ask for new photographs, for example on sectors not yet covered.

37 The photo library also contains photographs of child soldiers, another sensitive subject that is difficult to exhibit and document.

38 It is hard to say who the photographer was. The intention behind the photo is unclear, given that it was taken exactly at the time of the execution and that it shows German soldiers. The extremely vague information about the time and date would require historical crosschecking. Pictures of this kind are received and not taken deliberately. The circulation of those taken during the last forty years is forbidden.

39 By traceability we mean a systematic inquiry to discover who took the photographs, why and in what circumstances they were taken, who ordered them and how they reached the ICRC collection, the captions to them, and any accompanying information or data added later.

40 After the mass graves were discovered, Naville went to Katyn at the request of the German government, which suspected Soviet responsibility for this massacre. See Debons, Delphine, Fleury, Antoine, and Pitteloud, Jean-François (eds.), Katyn and Switzerland: Forensic Investigators and Investigations in Humanitarian Crises, 1920–2007, Georg, Geneva, 2009Google Scholar.

41 Pictures of Tuol Sleng prison taken by Gérard Leblanc in 1980 and of relics of the ‘killing fields’ taken by Till Mayer in 1996.

42 Photographs taken by Benoît Schaeffer in 2005.

43 It is difficult to know, for instance, whether the child was undressed for the photograph. There is no doubt that the scene was arranged and posed.

44 Save the Children, set up in 1919, was to adopt the same visuals.

45 See Khan, Fania and Palmieri, Daniel, ‘Des Morts et des Nus: le regard du CICR sur la malnutrition extrême en temps de guerre (1940–1950)’, in Dickason, Renée (ed.), Mémoires croisées autour des deux guerres mondiales, Mare et Martin, Paris, 2012Google Scholar.

46 Several studies have recently been made of the figure of the child victim in conflicts such as that in Iraq. The historical perspective is totally lacking. See Moeller, Susan, ‘A hierarchy of innocence: the media's use of children in the telling of international news’, in Press/Politics, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2002, pp. 36–56Google Scholar; Wells, Karen, ‘Narratives of liberation and narratives of innocent suffering: the rhetorical uses of Iraqi images in the British press’, in Visual Communication, Vol. 6, No. 1, 2007, pp. 55–71Google Scholar.

47 The agency reporter did not ask for special treatment by the ICRC. The only arrangements concerned the negotiation of fees and the priority of circulation by agencies, newspapers, and the ICRC. The institution did not demand exclusive or priority publication. See ‘Note sur Magnum Photos’, 20 December 1956, ACICR B AG 074-004.

48 The photographs chosen in this article, where authenticated, are not all professional. What is surprising is that their quality and aesthetic values are comparable, whether they are taken by professionals such as Vaterlaus, Nachtwey, or Kokic, or delegates such as Piralla or Comé.

49 L. Boltanski, above note 34, pp. 77–95.

50 Mesnard, Philippe, La victime écran: la représentation humanitaire en question, Textuel, Paris, 2002, p. 50Google Scholar.

51 R. Brauman and R. Backmann, above note 17.

52 See the testimony of James Nachtwey, the war photographer who founded VII, on working with the ICRC: ‘There also seemed to be a sense that photographing a suffering person was, by definition, a form of exploitation, when in fact nothing could be further from the truth. There seemed to exist the proprietary notion that only the efforts of a humanitarian organization could possibly be of any benefit, as if creating mass awareness and mobilizing public opinion was without value.’ ICRC, above note 5, p. 4.

53 David, Bruno, ‘Vers un iconoclasme humanitaire?’, in Humanitaire, No. 25, 2010Google Scholar.

54 Daccord, Yves, ‘ICRC communication: generating support’, in International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 87, No. 860, 2005, p. 703CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

55 Breen, Rodney, ‘Saving enemy children: Save the Children's Russian relief operation, 1921–23’, in Disasters, Vol. 18, No. 3, 1993, pp. 221–237CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

56 See the project Starved for Attention, available at: http://starvedforattention.org (last visited 30 June 2013).

57 ICRC, above note 5.

58 Valérie, Gorin, ‘La photographie de presse au service de l'humanitaire’, in Haver, Gianni (ed.), La photo de presse, Antipodes, Lausanne, 2009, pp. 141–152Google Scholar.