Contributions are now being accepted for a new edited book titled ‘Capture Japan: Visual Culture and the Global Imagination from 1952 to the Present’. The book aims to analyse, deconstruct and challenge representations of Japan in a variety of different visual media such as cinema, documentary film, photography, visual art, anime, manga, comics, television or advertising. Through a series of case studies by an international group of experts in the field, the book will highlight the institutional framework that has allowed certain types of images of Japan to be promoted, while others have been suppressed. The book will point to a vast network of global institutions, each concerned with a different type of image of Japan that fits into an ideological, political, cultural or economic agenda. Internationally, these institutions include film production companies or art museums and galleries, whereas in Japan they include local tourist boards, government agencies or computer game manufacturers. Whilst these institutions have differing interests, this book will identify common threads in the type of image of Japan that is being imagined, produced and promoted by such institutions. The book will make the argument that these images are visual tropes that feed into a type of Japan of the global imagination.

The book will identify that the 1952 ‘Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between Japan and the United States of America’ – commonly known as Anpo in Japan – marked the beginning of an era or unprecedented peace and prosperity. Whilst in Japan Anpo created many questions about sovereignty and political agency, particularly during the amendment of 1960, the treaty has underpinned the global economic axis of the post-war era between Japan and the west. The book will argue that the institutional support for certain visual tropes of Japan thus feeds into a larger discourse of maintaining the global economic, political and ideological order of the post-war era. Japan, and how it is represented in images, is therefore inextricably linked to its role in maintaining this status quo since 1952. The proposed book will come out at a crucial time since the re-emergence of China as the largest economy in the world is poised to affect the global economic (dis)equilibrium that has dominated much of the last 70 years. The book will investigate whether the visual discourse of Japan in the global imagination is about to shift into a new era.

The word ‘capture’ in the title of the book recognizes a level of dominance, even aggression with regards to images and how they feed into a larger discourse. It is also a play on words on the photographic term to ‘capture’, as well as the notion of a spectacle that is ‘captivating’. Contributions to this book by a diverse and interdisciplinary group of scholars will be conscious of the way images feed into, construct or subvert notions about Orientalism (Said) as well as self-exoticising discourses such as Strategic Essentialism (Spivak). Contributors might also consider how images sought to disrupt, subvert or at least challenge visual tropes about Japan thus complicating notions about a global imagination. Contributors might draw from the legacies of Japonisme of the 19th century or the rapid shifts the way Japan was perceived, and perceived itself, through images from the Meiji, Taisho or early Showa era, however the historical timespan for case studies is strictly from 1952 to the present.

Please send a 200 to 250 word abstract as well as a 100 short biography to the editor of the book Dr. Marco Bohr m.bohr@lboro.ac.uk by the 1st of October 2018. Accepted contributors will receive notification by the 1st of November 2018. The full chapter of around 6500 words will be due in early 2019 with a view to publish the book in 2020. Marco can be contacted for any inquiries contributors might have.

The latest political scandal that is currently sweeping across the United States is the child separation policy – a cruel and inhumane policy that means that children of asylum seekers attempting to cross the Mexico/US border get separated from their parents. A steady drip of images published in recent days is not only bringing this issue to a wider attention, one could argue that public awareness to this policy is actually dependent on its visual representation through photography. In other words, public awareness to the issue and the photographic depiction of the issue are perhaps necessarily going hand in hand.

A watershed moment occurred when the Daily News decided to publish a particularly heart-breaking photograph for their 16th of June issue. The photographer John Moore captioned this image on Twitter as following: “A Honduran asylum seeker, 2, and her mother are taken into custody near the US-Mexico border. The Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy for undocumented immigrants calls for the separation of parents and children.” Other news outlets in the United States followed suit and soon the image of the little girl crying whilst her mother was searched by a border guard was shared widely on social media. The power of the image rests on a number very important visual clues that are important to emphasise. The first is the vantage point of the camera: the image is taken from a low vantage point thus allowing the viewer to empathise with the child who is now at eye level. The viewer is not looking down at the child, but is looking at it from a similar height. The consequence is that the viewer feels compelled to see the world from the child’s viewpoint – a very powerful visual analogy in this context.

Once this empathetic viewpoint is taken up, the other aspect that really stands out in this image is that the two figures to the right of the image – presumably the mother and a border guard searching her – are not fully visible. A close reading of the image might suggest that the crying child is looking up, not at her mother but by the border guard searching her mother. The two figures however remain anonymous as only their lower bodies are visible in the image. By framing their bodies in such way, the photographer end up protecting the identity of the two adults in the image, whilst it explicitly does not protect the identity of the only child in the image. The framing brings up an immediate ethical concern that also must be raised: whilst the identity of the adults in the image has been protected, why hasn’t the child been granted the same sort of rights? In the absence of being able to grant permission to photograph, can the rights of the child be overridden by the newsworthiness of the story captured by the photograph? If a child cannot be made responsible for the actions of his or her parents, why does the photograph focus on the child who lacks agency, and not on the parent who makes decisions on the child’s behalf?

There are two images that I am immediately reminded of: the first one is that of little Samar Hassan who was photographed by the late photojournalist Chris Hondros in 2005. Hondros’ image of Samar screaming is one of the most gut-wrenching images that emerged from the war in Iraq. The fact that images from the US/Mexican border are visually comparable to that of the Iraq war should give the powers to be some pause for thought. The other image that I am reminded of, and that I prefer not to punish here, is that of little Alan Kurdi, the Syrian boy who drowned off the coast of Turkey. Whilst the images are visually quite different, the children depicted in these images have a few aspects in common: far away from home, lost and vulnerable, at an age where they are not able to make decisions for themselves. One of the most heartbreaking aspects when I look at these photographs of children is that, in spite of their struggles, they are children’s clothes much like the clothes my own daughters would wear. This banal yet also rather important details provides an extra layer of empathy – in a different world these could by my children.

Much like the photographic depiction of Alan Kurdi’s drowning – a decision that was made quite deliberately in the UK by The Guardian Newspaper with other news outlets in Europe following suit – the front cover publication photograph of the little Honduran girl crying at the US/Mexico border feels like the dam has finally broken. These type of images cannot be hidden any more. They cannot fall through the cracks on the desks of photo editors. No. This type of image now must be shown.

Follow me on Instagram at @MarcoBohr

Dear Readers,

It is my distinct pleasure to invite you to the book launch of ‘The Evolution of the Image’ I co-edited with Basia Sliwinska. The launch will be held at the London College of Fashion on Wednesday 13th of June at 6pm. All are welcome. Please register for your free tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-evolution-of-the-image-political-action-and-the-digital-self-tickets-46221813689

The volume addresses the evolution of visual in digital communities, offering a multidisciplinary discussion of the ways in which images are circulated online, the meanings which are attached to them and the implications they have on notions of identity, memory, gender, cultural belonging and political action. Contributors focus on the political efficacy of the image in digital communities, as well as the representation of the digital self in order to offer a fresh perspective on the role of digital images in the creation and promotion of new forms of resistance, agency and identity within visual cultures.

The book launch will comprise of a talk by myself and Basia Sliwinska. We will then be joined by a number of panellists who contributed to the book. These will include the photography theorist Professor David Bate, the internationally renown artist Rasha Kahil, the academic expert on cyber bullying and revenge porn Dr. Anne Burns, and via Skype we will have the artist Leo Selvaggio joining us from the United States. The session will be chaired by Dr Serkan Delice from the University of the Arts London. It is promising to be an exciting evening.

I am looking forward to see some of you tomorrow (Wednesday).

Best wishes,

Marco