Inconvenient Evidence: Iraqi Prison Photographs from Abu Ghraib

Tuesday November 9, 2004, 7:00 pm
New York, International Center of Photography
The Great Hall Ð Cooper Union
7 East 7th Street at 3rd Avenue
http://www.icp.org/exhibitions/abu_ghraib/AG_symposium.html

In Conversation:
Seymour Hersh, Luc Sante, David Levi Strauss

Moderated by Brian Wallis

Seymour Hersh, Luc Sante, and David Levi Strauss will participate in a
major symposium held in conjunction with the exhibition Inconvenient
Evidence: Iraqi Prison Photographs from Abu Ghraib, which is on view at
the International Center of Photography through November 28, 2004.

The symposium, moderated by ICP Chief Curator Brian Wallis, will take
place on Tuesday, November 9 at 7:00 pm, in The Great Hall at Cooper
Union, 7 East 7th Street at 3rd Avenue in New York City.

This panel will bring together these outstanding writers and critics who
will address the part that photography has played in the international
debate on the events of the past year, and will speak to a range of
ethical and political issues, the function of electronic media, and
photographyÕs role in documenting truth.

Few photographs in recent years have had the explosive impact of the
images of detainees being abused by U.S. troops at Abu Ghraib prison in
Iraq. First revealed on CBSÕs Ò60 Minutes IIÓ on April 28, 2004, the
photographs quickly began to proliferate on a number of Internet sites,
and were subsequently published in the May 5, 2004 issue of The New Yorker
with Seymour HershÕs article entitled ÒTorture at Abu Ghraib.Ó

From the covers of weekly news magazines to the front pages of national
and local newspapers, the images began to invade the American
consciousness. The emergence of the Abu Ghraib photographs fundamentally
calls into question the relationship between photography and war. Unlike
traditional war photojournalism, the images were not created as
documentation of atrocities, but were actually intended as instruments of
maltreatment and sexual/cultural humiliation. It was amateur digital
photographs transmitted over the Internet that made the public aware of
shocking human rights abuses and jolted our perception of the Iraqi
conflict, something that signaled a sea change in the representation of
war via image-making technology.

Admission to the symposium is free. Seating is limited: for further
information and to reserve a space, please contact the ICP Education
Department at (212) 857-0001.

Organized by the International Center of Photography in conjunction with
The Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School and Cooper
Union. This evening panel has been made possible with the generous
support of the Open Society Institute.

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New York, International Center of Photography
The Great Hall Ð Cooper Union
7 East 7th Street at 3rd Avenue
http://www.icp.org/