tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/australian-war-memorial-1032/articlesAustralian War Memorial2015-05-14T20:01:01Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/411872015-05-14T20:01:01Z2015-05-14T20:01:01ZSelfies of an ‘unsound mind’: the mysterious art of Thomas Hinton<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81111/original/image-20150510-22730-1867lq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=78%2C149%2C1143%2C834&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Photographer unknown, studio portrait of Thomas Hinton, 1900</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Museum of Australia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Thomas Hinton (1857-1933) was admitted to the Hospital for the Insane, New Norfolk, Tasmania, on August 25 1900 after being found to be of “unsound mind”. He had a “mania for having his photograph taken in all sorts of dress and without dress”. </p>
<p>One photograph, dated August 9 1900, is addressed to Miss Headlam; the admissions record detailed that “Hinton has been sending indecent photos to a Miss Headlam”. Miraculously, <a href="http://collectionsearch.nma.gov.au/collections/thomas%20hinton%20collection">these 15 photographs</a> were preserved and were acquired by the National Museum of Australia in 2013. </p>
<p>Four are now on public display for the first time in the Art Gallery of NSW’s exhibition <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-photograph-and-australia-the-curator-and-the-exhibition-38162">The photograph and Australia</a>, in the theme of “People and Place” in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This gallery presents the proliferating photographic techniques being used to document personal and official histories all over Australia. </p>
<p>The Hinton photographs are presented as one individual’s response to Federation - but the full story behind these images is yet more complex.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81112/original/image-20150510-22722-12a9r21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81112/original/image-20150510-22722-12a9r21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81112/original/image-20150510-22722-12a9r21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81112/original/image-20150510-22722-12a9r21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81112/original/image-20150510-22722-12a9r21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81112/original/image-20150510-22722-12a9r21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1155&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81112/original/image-20150510-22722-12a9r21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1155&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81112/original/image-20150510-22722-12a9r21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1155&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">JW Beattie studio, Hobart, Studio portrait of Thomas Hinton, 1900.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Museum of Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They use the conventions of studio portraiture to respond to Australia at the dawn of the 20th century. Immediately apparent in the images are the Advance Australia coat of arms and various British, Australian and Tasmanian symbols, such as flags, flora and fauna. Less readily determined is the intent of the frequent subject of these photographs, Thomas Hinton.</p>
<p>Hinton must have created the photographs over a period, as they are mounted on cards from studios in both Hobart and Launceston. Some props reappear throughout the photographs, indicating that they were Hinton’s own and that he deliberately constructed these dioramas. </p>
<p>Conventional studio props (the carved table and pedestal, drapes, and backdrop) were also included. But when it comes to the dress and poses adopted, Hinton is on his own, seeming to draw inspiration from sculptures of idealised heroic figures for his loincloths and stance (one can only wonder what the photographers thought of Hinton’s use of their studios).</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81133/original/image-20150510-22743-p2ht4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81133/original/image-20150510-22743-p2ht4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81133/original/image-20150510-22743-p2ht4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81133/original/image-20150510-22743-p2ht4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81133/original/image-20150510-22743-p2ht4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81133/original/image-20150510-22743-p2ht4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81133/original/image-20150510-22743-p2ht4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81133/original/image-20150510-22743-p2ht4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Louis Konrad studio, Launceston, Untitled diorama by Thomas Hinton, 1900.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Museum of Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hinton’s photographs, and what we can know about his life from other sources, give a rare glimpse into the life of someone suffering a mental illness at that time. His medical records tell us that he was admitted to New Norfolk twice, and further evidence documents he had been previously been admitted to asylums in Sydney and Melbourne. </p>
<p>They reveal that in 1900 Hinton was 43 years old, single, and an engineer or engine driver in Tasmania’s midlands. It seems that his condition was episodic, allowing him to work for periods. </p>
<p>Tasmania’s mental health care was shaped by its origin as a penal colony: as the government had introduced societal ills with the transportation of convicts, so it was considered it should bear the costs of caring for the insane. A hospital was built at New Norfolk in the 1820s and was solely an asylum from the 1840s. </p>
<p>By the late 19th century, partly because of Darwin’s theory of evolution, mental illness was considered to be inherited, and thus had a poor prospect of recovery. This led to a tendency to conceal the mental illness of a family member. Patients vastly outnumbered staff, allowing little prospect for individual treatment or even attention. So patients would have little opportunity for self-expression, or for such work to be preserved.</p>
<p>Hinton’s photographs are thus an extremely rare example of a creative work by a person of “unsound mind”. It seems fitting then, that they should relate to a turning point in Australian history. The prominent repetition of 1901 in the photographs, given their creation in 1900 and use of Australian imagery, seems to indicate that they are a comment on Federation, especially given that it was a topic of public discussion. </p>
<p>Similarly, the Advance Australia coat of arms was nationally recognisable. While the phrase “Advance Australia” is now associated with the national anthem, its history dates to well before the song was adopted in 1984. It was used from the 1820s and was best known for its use on the unofficial Australian coat of arms. </p>
<p>It features on a number of items in the Museum’s collection – platters, pendants, dog tags, a <a href="http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/museum_workshop/paper_and_textiles_lab#pageindex2">remarkable embroidery</a>. “Advance Australia” suggests the colonists’ belief in the continent’s promise and future identity as a unified, independent nation. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81113/original/image-20150510-22785-1v6p8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81113/original/image-20150510-22785-1v6p8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81113/original/image-20150510-22785-1v6p8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81113/original/image-20150510-22785-1v6p8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81113/original/image-20150510-22785-1v6p8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81113/original/image-20150510-22785-1v6p8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1163&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81113/original/image-20150510-22785-1v6p8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1163&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81113/original/image-20150510-22785-1v6p8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1163&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Unknown photographer, Studio portrait of Thomas Hinton, 1900.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Museum of Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are no other known photographs of Thomas Hinton, so this collection may be the result of a short-lived mania. They are certainly specific to the moment of Federation in Tasmania. The photographs employ familiar Australian iconography, but in an inimitably personal manner – his version of “Advance Australia” is painted on an inverted map of Tasmania and features an ostrich instead of an emu. </p>
<p>In almost all the photographs collage adorns different parts of the banner or other elements of the tableau. Combined, the collection offers a tantalising sense of almost intelligible meanings. They give a response refracted by mental illness to matters of national importance. A historically voiceless figure, the “madman” here was creating a visual record that has survived against the odds.</p>
<p><br>
<em>The Photograph and Australia is on display at the Art Gallery of NSW until June 8. Details <a href="http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/the-photograph-and-australia/">here</a>.</em></p>
<p><strong>See also:</strong><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-photograph-and-australia-the-curator-and-the-exhibition-38162">The Photograph and Australia: the curator and the exhibition</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41187/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthea Gunn works for the National Museum of Australia, but is currently on a transfer to the Australian War Memorial.</span></em></p>Thomas Hinton’s photographs, and what we can know about his life from other sources, give a rare glimpse into the life of someone suffering a mental illness at the turn of the 20th century.Anthea Gunn, Curator of art, Australian War MemorialLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/310122014-09-25T05:34:23Z2014-09-25T05:34:23ZArt and politics at the Gwangju Biennale: Burning Down the House<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59770/original/br7zw358-1411453992.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Minouk Lim's Navigation ID is an extraordinary example of community engaged public art.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gwangju Biennale/ Stefan Altenburger</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Burning Down the House, curated by Brit <a href="http://www.gwangjubiennale.org/eng/gb/plan/">Jessica Morgan</a>, marks the 20th anniversary of the <a href="http://www.gwangjubiennale.org/eng/">Gwangju Biennale</a>, currently showing in Gwangju, a city in the south-west of South Korea.</p>
<p>Despite being one of the youngest events on the ever-expanding <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-a-biennale-26516">global biennial</a> circuit, Gwangju has quickly become one of the most respected. And, with visitor numbers to rival the Venice Biennale, it is one of the best attended as well.</p>
<h2>Democracy and art in Korea</h2>
<p>The Gwangju Biennale was founded in 1995 to commemorate the pro-democracy protest and massacre now known as the Gwangju Uprising. </p>
<p>The Uprising began on May 18, 1980, when students assembled to peacefully protest the inauguration of yet another military strongman, Chun Doo-hwan, as Korea’s new president. Within nine days at least 240 protesters had been murdered by Korean Special Forces. Hundreds if not thousands more were beaten and injured, and more than 1,000 arrested in the aftermath. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59837/original/hvw8jhb8-1411523468.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59837/original/hvw8jhb8-1411523468.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59837/original/hvw8jhb8-1411523468.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59837/original/hvw8jhb8-1411523468.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59837/original/hvw8jhb8-1411523468.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59837/original/hvw8jhb8-1411523468.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59837/original/hvw8jhb8-1411523468.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59837/original/hvw8jhb8-1411523468.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mangwol-dong cemetery in Gwangju where the Uprising’s victims’ bodies were buried.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the Uprising was condemned by President Chun as an unlawful rebellion, it prompted a national and (eventual) international outcry that critically destabilised his new government. In so doing it also provided a foundation for, and powerful symbol of, the democratisation movement that would triumph by the end of the decade.</p>
<h2>Artist boycott</h2>
<p>Those political origins have remained at the foreground of the Biennale since its inception, and have provided it with a strong local context that runs against the grain of the place-less spectacle that characterises so many other large-scale international art events. </p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of the self-censored artworks by Ohura Nobuyuki in the Sweet Dew – After 1980 exhibition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But this democratic foundation was tested even before Gwangju 2014 opened, when a painting by veteran political artist Hong Seong-dam was withdrawn from the satellite exhibition <a href="http://www.gwangjubiennale.org/eng/information/NEWS/?no=1&mode=view&IDX=8365">Sweet Dew – After 1980</a> at the nearby Gwangju Museum of Art. </p>
<p>Hong’s painting Sewol Owol (2014) linked the current Korean government’s role in, and response to, the catastrophic Sewol ferry disaster in April with that of the Gwangju Uprising itself. The withdrawal of his work came following pressure from the Gwangju Metropolitan City Council, which was itself allegedly pressured by the Federal Government led by Park Geun-hye, who Hong had depicted as a grotesque puppet. </p>
<p>When news of the decision broke, numerous artists withdrew from the show, several others pointedly obscured their work with anti-censorship messages, a key loan was cancelled and the respected president of the Gwangju Biennale Foundation, Lee Yong-woo, <a href="http://news.artnet.com/art-world/gwangju-biennale-president-resigns-over-censorship-82587">resigned</a>.</p>
<h2>Burning Down the House</h2>
<p>There was no sign of further political interference when the Biennale proper opened on September 5. Indeed, Burning Down the House trenchantly foregrounds Korea’s tumultuous past. And, in a country that has been repeatedly razed and rebuilt throughout history, <a href="http://www.gwangjubiennale.org/eng/gb/composition/?mode=view&CM_IDX=81&p=1">Morgan’s theme</a> of “burning and transformation […], obliteration and renewal” is particularly resonant. </p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jeremy Deller’s giant octopus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Such a direct curatorial address is also welcome at a time when the rationale of so many other biennials, such as the recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/biennale-of-sydney">Biennale of Sydney</a>, are so broad or oblique as to verge on the nebulous. </p>
<p>Morgan’s curatorial remit is apparent immediately upon stepping on to the Biennale Plaza. Here, Englishman <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/jeremy-deller-3034">Jeremy Deller</a>’s giant, <em>tromp l’oeil</em> octopus smashes its way out of the building, while Sterling Ruby’s sculptural incinerators smoulder menacingly beneath. </p>
<p>Alongside the incinerators sit two shipping containers, part of the work Navigation ID (2014) by Seoul-based <a href="http://www.pkmgallery.com/artists/minouk-lim/biography/">Minouk Lim</a>. Although seemingly innocuous, a glance through the containers’ windows reveals their shocking cargo: unidentified human remains.</p>
<p>Inside the Biennale hall a dual screen video elaborates the presence of the bones outside. It charts the artist’s work with community groups to bring descendants of those disappeared by the Korean government during the Korean War together with the mothers of those killed during the Gwangju Uprising. </p>
<p>Together, the two groups visit the site of a recently uncovered mass grave and then accompany the excavated bones to the Biennale, all the time sharing their painful personal stories. </p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Navigation ID, 2014, Minouk Lim.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gwangju Biennale/ Stefan Altenburger</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By bringing two generations together who faced state-sanctioned injustice and bereavement in the pursuit of political visibility, Minouk’s work is a jaw-droppingly brutal yet empathetic act of historical solidarity. </p>
<p>It is also one of the most extraordinary works of community engaged public art in memory. Indeed, the impassioned integrity of Minouk’s work, combined with Morgan’s curatorial <em>chutzpah</em>, makes the political aspirations of so much contemporary art and curatorship seem basely opportunistic by comparison.</p>
<p>Inside the Biennale proper the theme of fire and destruction continues to manifest in various ways. </p>
<p>Sometimes it is literal, as in the defamiliarising juxtaposition of historic work by French and Indian artists Yves Klein and Anwar Shemza, both of whom actually painted with fire. </p>
<p>Sometimes it is figurative, as in the remarkable charcoal and monoprint mural by Romanian <a href="https://artsy.net/artist/mircea-suciu">Mircea Suciu</a>, Dust to Dust (2013), that traces a fiery history of revolution and war across the 20th and 21st centuries but refuses to reconcile its constitutive parts. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59851/original/3fbnvbd6-1411530158.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59851/original/3fbnvbd6-1411530158.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59851/original/3fbnvbd6-1411530158.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59851/original/3fbnvbd6-1411530158.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59851/original/3fbnvbd6-1411530158.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59851/original/3fbnvbd6-1411530158.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59851/original/3fbnvbd6-1411530158.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59851/original/3fbnvbd6-1411530158.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mircea Suciu’s Dust to Dust, 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And sometimes it is social, as in the rousing film The Uprising (2012) by Brazilian <a href="http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/focus-jonathas-de-andrade/">Jonathas de Andrade</a>, in which the alienated labour of horse-drawn transport is momentarily returned <em>en masse</em> to the Brazilian city of Recife to ecstatically but dangerously disrupt everyday life. </p>
<p>While the show is largely characterised by unfamiliar curatorial choices (either of artists or particular works), the points at which it falters are those where a well known (usually Western European) name appears to have been expediently and unnecessarily shoehorned into the program. </p>
<p>Most notable in this respect is the anti-climactic final gallery where the show concludes inexplicably with M.2602 (Fitzcarraldo) (2014), the latest instalment in French artist <a href="http://www.banffcentre.ca/faculty/faculty-member/4389/dominique-gonzalez-foerster/">Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster</a>’s series of impersonations of 19th and 20th century fictional characters planning an as yet unrealised opera.</p>
<p>A destructive energy spills out of the Biennale halls in further interventions at the nearby Gwangju Folk Museum and Spiral Pavillion in Jeongju Park. It also connects with the ongoing <a href="http://www.gwangjubiennale.org/eng/folly/intro/">Gwangju Folly project</a>, where architects are invited to make permanent interventions on key historic sites across the city including, among others, those of Japanese imperial atrocities.</p>
<p>The Gwangju Biennale is a timely example of how biennials, when curatorially anchored in one place over time, can provide a powerful forum for the perpetual recall and reanimation of specific histories of our time.</p>
<p><br>
<em><a href="http://www.gwangjubiennale.org/eng/">Burning Down the House – Gwangju Biennale 2014</a>, Gwangju, South Korea is showing until November 9.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31012/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ryan Johnston does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Burning Down the House, curated by Brit Jessica Morgan, marks the 20th anniversary of the Gwangju Biennale, currently showing in Gwangju, a city in the south-west of South Korea. Despite being one of the…Ryan Johnston, Head of Art , Australian War MemorialLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/273192014-06-16T20:36:32Z2014-06-16T20:36:32ZBattle lines: the onward march of war art in Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51279/original/gt5z4dyb-1402972868.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ben Quilty, Captain S, after Afghanistan, 2012, oil on linen, 140 x 190cm.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>War art, like war, changes with time – but not as much as we might like to believe. So what is its function, and how has it evolved over time? </p>
<p>Two current exhibitions – the travelling show <a href="http://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/quilty/">Ben Quilty: After Afghanistan</a> and <a href="http://www.artmuseum.uq.edu.au/content/conflict-contemporary-responses-war">Conflict: Contemporary responses to war</a> at UQ Art Museum chart the shifting role of both official and non-official war art. Unlike the Vietnam era, the focus today is less on direct protest and resistance than it is on uncovering the complex legacies of war for contemporary society.</p>
<p>On the eve of the centenary of the first world war (August 1) and in the wake of the ongoing war in Afghanistan, art continues to play a major role in understanding and remembering conflict. And at a time when discussion of commemoration in the Australian popular media is increasingly reductive and often jingoistic, the role of art is, if anything, more important than ever.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.awm.gov.au/">Australian War Memorial</a> continues to manage the <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/war_artists/artists/">official war art scheme</a> which involves an artist being embedded with Australian military forces in conflicts or peacekeeping missions for the purpose of creatively recording and interpreting the Australian experience of war. The war art scheme is now Australia’s longest running art commissioning program. It is also one of few such schemes to remain active anywhere in the world.</p>
<h2>Australia’s first war artist</h2>
<p>In May 1917, artist and political cartoonist <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dyson-william-henry-will-6074">Will Dyson</a> was retrospectively appointed Australia’s first official war artist.</p>
<p>Frustrated by Australia’s failure to emulate Canada’s official war art program (which commissioned a select group of artists to produce specific works during the first world war), he had volunteered to join the Australian Infantry Force as an artist and accepted an honorary position without pay. By the end of 1916 he was in France, where he witnessed some of the bloodiest fighting in history.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50813/original/v64zm63b-1402467549.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50813/original/v64zm63b-1402467549.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50813/original/v64zm63b-1402467549.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=683&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50813/original/v64zm63b-1402467549.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=683&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50813/original/v64zm63b-1402467549.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=683&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50813/original/v64zm63b-1402467549.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=858&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50813/original/v64zm63b-1402467549.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=858&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50813/original/v64zm63b-1402467549.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=858&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Will Dyson, Dead beat, the tunnel, Hill 60, 1917, brush and ink, charcoal on paper, 50.2 x 44.8 cm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Australian War Memorial collection</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When Dyson’s grim but powerfully empathetic drawings of everyday life on the Western Front arrived back in London their significance was quickly understood. </p>
<p>Despite this slow start, the official war art scheme quickly gained momentum and a total of 15 artists had been appointed by the end of the first world war. The scheme continued apace during the second world war (42 appointments), slowed in Korea (two appointments) and then faltered in Vietnam. </p>
<p>While two artists went to Vietnam in 1967, the deep unpopularity of the war combined with the requirement for official artists to participate in active combat (for the only time in the scheme’s history) to make it very difficult, if not impossible, to identify willing participants. After lying dormant for more than 30 years, the scheme was reactivated in 1999, since which time 11 artists have been deployed to East Timor, the Solomon Islands, Iraq, Afghanistan and Northern Australia. </p>
<h2>Ben Quilty: After Afghanistan</h2>
<p>In 2011 the Australian War Memorial appointed Australian artist <a href="http://www.benquilty.com/">Ben Quilty</a> as the fourth and, as it turned out, final official war artist to Afghanistan. (He was preceded by Shaun Gladwell, Lyndell Brown, and Charles Green). Now on show in the travelling exhibition <a href="http://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/quilty/">Ben Quilty: After Afghanistan</a>, the paintings Quilty produced have much in common with Dyson’s work of a century earlier. </p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ben Quilty, Air Commodore John Oddie, after Afghanistan, 2012, oil on linen, 140 x 140 cm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source"> Australian War Memorial collection</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like Dyson, Quilty’s focus was neither major events nor heroic actions, but the experience of ordinary soldiers. And also like Dyson, Quilty’s deeply empathetic portraits emerged from the strong rapport he developed with the soldiers he met in the field. But while Dyson was concerned with the immediate experience of war, Quilty’s work focuses on its aftermath. </p>
<p>Here his familiar thick, layered and partially abstracted paintings convey the psychological impact of conflict. These works provide rare insight into the personal cost of war for a general public increasingly removed from actual military experience. In doing so they have assumed a powerful social agency. </p>
<p>Quilty’s commission has done much to shift post-traumatic stress disorder (a condition once rarely acknowledged) to the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/austory/content/2012/s3723112.htm">forefront of public discussion</a> of war in Australia.</p>
<h2>Conflict: Contemporary responses to war</h2>
<p>Quilty’s work can also be seen alongside that of other official and non-official artists in <a href="http://www.artmuseum.uq.edu.au/content/conflict-contemporary-responses-war">Conflict: Contemporary responses to war</a>, curated by Samantha Littley for the University of Queensland Art Museum. </p>
<p>The first of several contemporary war art exhibitions slated for the next year, this large show surveys the diversity of recent responses to war. </p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shaun Gladwell, POV mirror sequence (Tarin Kowt) (digital still), 2009-10, 2 channel synchronised HD video, stereo audio, 16:9, 8 minutes 22 seconds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Australian War Memorial collection </span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Notable shifts marked in this show include a strong rise in new media practices. Using film and animation respectively, Australian artists <a href="http://www.annaschwartzgallery.com/works/biography?artist=86&c=m">Shaun Gladwell</a> and <a href="http://www.badenpailthorpe.com/">Baden Pailthorpe</a> explore warfare in the digital age. In particular, they trace conflict’s immediate public dissemination and complex mediation by traditional, online, and social media. </p>
<p>Both artists also point to the deep entanglement of military technologies with popular cultures (such as video games) and everyday life (such as the increasing civilian use of drones). </p>
<p>The Conflict exhibition also includes the colonisation of Australia in its curatorial statement and features often sardonic work by Indigenous artists including <a href="http://www.cofa.unsw.edu.au/about-us/staff/147">Joan Ross</a>, <a href="http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/artists/287/Daniel_Boyd/profile/">Daniel Boyd</a> and <a href="http://www.mca.com.au/collection/artist/foley-fiona/">Fiona Foley</a>. The exhibition wades into a long contested debate currently being amplified by the forthcoming centenary of the first world war: acknowledgement of colonisation as warfare.</p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Joan Ross, BBQ this Sunday, BYO 2011, digital animation, edition 17/20 5:01 min.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collection of The University of Queensland, courtesy of the artist and Bett Gallery, Hobart. </span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Also featured are a number of works that re-imagine the familiar form of the war memorial monument. (This is also the theme of another exhibition, <a href="http://monash.edu/muma/exhibitions/2014/concrete.html">Concrete</a>, currently at the Monash University Museum of Art in Melbourne.) Melbourne-based artist <a href="http://www.monash.edu.au/research/people/profiles/profile.html?sid=10386&pid=4213">Tom Nicholson</a>’s Comparative monument (Palestine) (2012), is a proposal for a memorial to both the Australian Light Horse participation in the 1917 Battle of Beersheba, and the Palestinian exodus from the same city in 1948. </p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tom Nicholson, Comparative monument (Palestine), 2012, offset printed posters, dimensions variable, Australian War Memorial collection.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of the artist</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By remembering two very different but interwoven conflicts together, Nicholson highlights how the act of recalling one difficult history in the context of another can provide a platform for much-needed international unity into the future. </p>
<p>At a time when so many of our public commentators seem content to rehearse tired polemic, we can look to our artists for the nuanced analysis the difficult history of war deserves. </p>
<p><br>
<em><strong>The next stop on the <a href="http://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/quilty/tour/">Ben Quilty: After Afghanistan</a> tour is the John Curtin Gallery from August 2. <a href="http://www.artmuseum.uq.edu.au/content/conflict-contemporary-responses-war">Conflict: Contemporary responses to war</a> shows at the UQ Art Museum until September 7.</strong></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27319/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ryan Johnston works for the Australian War Memorial which manages Australia's official war art scheme. The Memorial is also the organiser of the exhibition 'Ben Quilty: After Afghanistan'.</span></em></p>War art, like war, changes with time – but not as much as we might like to believe. So what is its function, and how has it evolved over time? Two current exhibitions – the travelling show Ben Quilty…Ryan Johnston, Head of Art , Australian War MemorialLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/87592012-08-10T02:28:27Z2012-08-10T02:28:27ZThe photographer’s war: Vietnam through a lens<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14083/original/j5chgxdq-1344489814.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2953%2C2391&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">No war was photographed like Vietnam and many of these images still speak to us today.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photographer: Michael Coleridge. Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial EKN/67/0130/VN.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>An unprecedented level of media coverage made the Vietnam war a watershed moment in the discipline of photography. </p>
<p>The images by official military photographers, photojournalists, and individual soldiers provide a complex record of the war. But what is obscured in this record is often as telling as what is included. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14078/original/wvr9dbxr-1344489799.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14078/original/wvr9dbxr-1344489799.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14078/original/wvr9dbxr-1344489799.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14078/original/wvr9dbxr-1344489799.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14078/original/wvr9dbxr-1344489799.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14078/original/wvr9dbxr-1344489799.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14078/original/wvr9dbxr-1344489799.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Singer Lorrae Desmond on stage entertaining soldiers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photographer: Michael Coleridge Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial COL/67/0175/VN.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A single moment captured in a photograph only tells part of the story. As these several examples of the conflict illustrate, a photograph, when plucked from the events that surround it, can be interpreted in various ways. In the Vietnam war, the subject and how it was represented depended greatly on who was taking the photograph and why.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14084/original/bn2gw3f2-1344489822.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14084/original/bn2gw3f2-1344489822.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14084/original/bn2gw3f2-1344489822.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14084/original/bn2gw3f2-1344489822.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14084/original/bn2gw3f2-1344489822.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14084/original/bn2gw3f2-1344489822.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14084/original/bn2gw3f2-1344489822.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The faces of young men of the 7th Battalion the Royal Australian Regiment [7RAR], home after twelve months in Vietnam.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photographer: Robert Pearce. Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial PEA/71/0105/EC.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The mission of the official army photographers was to build public support for the Australian forces in Vietnam. Often in these images, the photographer was trying to personalise the war for Australians at home and make it familiar.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14079/original/6pvsqyfj-1344489799.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14079/original/6pvsqyfj-1344489799.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14079/original/6pvsqyfj-1344489799.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14079/original/6pvsqyfj-1344489799.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14079/original/6pvsqyfj-1344489799.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14079/original/6pvsqyfj-1344489799.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14079/original/6pvsqyfj-1344489799.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Warrant Officer Class 2 Sonny Phillips with a young Vietnamese girl during the distribution of clothing, toys and soap to peasant families in An Bac.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photographer: David Walter Brown. Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial BRO/68/0700/VN.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The captions for the photographs taken by Army Public Relations photographers <a href="http://www.awm.gov.au/blog/2012/01/13/mike-coleridge-1933-2012/">Michael Coleridge</a> and Christopher Bellis, for example, often included the name and home town of the soldiers depicted. This increased their usefulness for Australian local newspapers but also brought the experience of those fighting closer to home. </p>
<p>This official record, however, is also notable for its absences. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/BEL/69/0372/VN">Bellis’s confronting photographs</a> of the aftermath of an ambush at Thua Tich were suppressed by the army at the time, as were Coleridge’s images of Australian soldiers burning village huts to prevent their use by the Viet Cong (see image below).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14080/original/z7cr5tfh-1344489803.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14080/original/z7cr5tfh-1344489803.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14080/original/z7cr5tfh-1344489803.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14080/original/z7cr5tfh-1344489803.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14080/original/z7cr5tfh-1344489803.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14080/original/z7cr5tfh-1344489803.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14080/original/z7cr5tfh-1344489803.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">With a Vietnamese house in flames behind him, Private Laurie Connor of Preston, VIC, takes a break to wipe his forehead. Houses were burnt down to prevent their use by Viet Cong.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photographer: Michael Coleridge. Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial COL/67/0820/VN.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Vietnam, a counter-insurgency war with no fixed front lines, saw the emergence of a correspondingly decentralised media presence. While army photographers’ work was being closely controlled, civilian journalists had unprecedented freedom of movement and access to combat units. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14076/original/dn2tfpwj-1344489786.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14076/original/dn2tfpwj-1344489786.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14076/original/dn2tfpwj-1344489786.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14076/original/dn2tfpwj-1344489786.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14076/original/dn2tfpwj-1344489786.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14076/original/dn2tfpwj-1344489786.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14076/original/dn2tfpwj-1344489786.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">1969 Villagers in eastern Phuoc Tuy Province recoil at the sight of the bodies (not in view) of dead Viet Cong.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photographer: Christopher John Bellis. Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial BEL/69/0376/VN.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, news photographer <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/vietnam-war-photographer-denis-gibbons-dies-at-74/story-e6frg6nf-1226202993450">Denis Gibbons</a> who worked for Fairfax press and United Press International, photographed the same bloody Thua Tich ambush site. But in his case, the images were released into the public domain without any controls. </p>
<p>This freedom often meant that the relationship between photojournalists and soldiers was a delicate one. </p>
<p>Many soldiers, aware of how photographs were influencing public perceptions of the war, were wary of any media presence.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14077/original/t5ng6877-1344489795.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14077/original/t5ng6877-1344489795.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14077/original/t5ng6877-1344489795.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14077/original/t5ng6877-1344489795.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14077/original/t5ng6877-1344489795.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14077/original/t5ng6877-1344489795.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14077/original/t5ng6877-1344489795.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Private Peter Lawrence Simpson leads Vietnamese soldiers on patrol through dense jungle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photographer: Christopher John Bellis. Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial BEL/69/0345/VN.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The issue that concerned these soldiers goes to the heart of what makes Vietnam War photography truly significant. Removed from its context, a photograph can be appropriated and re-framed, perhaps to serve an agenda very different from anything the photographer may have envisaged. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14081/original/znhpsz9q-1344489811.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14081/original/znhpsz9q-1344489811.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14081/original/znhpsz9q-1344489811.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14081/original/znhpsz9q-1344489811.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14081/original/znhpsz9q-1344489811.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14081/original/znhpsz9q-1344489811.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14081/original/znhpsz9q-1344489811.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A pedi-cab operator in Saigon is dwarfed by a huge convoy of American Army tanks moving through the city streets.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photographer: William James Cunneen. Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial CUN/66/1006A/VN.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Take, for example, the <a href="http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/P01404.013">series photographed</a> by Gabriel Carpay of To Thi Nau, a Viet Cong prisoner being interrogated by Australian soldiers in October 1966. Journalists were only present for a short period of this session; that they were present at all is evidence of the journalists’ freedom to move around in Vietnam relatively unhindered.</p>
<p>Seventeen months later an <a href="http://www.awm.gov.au/publications/contact/controversy.asp">exaggerated account</a> was published which asserted that Australian soldiers had forced water down the prisoner’s throat for around 30 minutes. The resulting controversy evolved, with Carpay’s photographs eventually being cited as “proof” in subsequent allegations that the use of torture by Australian soldiers was not uncommon, even though, on Carpay’s own admission, very little about the actual interrogation can be gleaned from his images.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14075/original/59nryfwq-1344489786.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14075/original/59nryfwq-1344489786.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14075/original/59nryfwq-1344489786.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14075/original/59nryfwq-1344489786.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14075/original/59nryfwq-1344489786.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14075/original/59nryfwq-1344489786.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/14075/original/59nryfwq-1344489786.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Corporal Jeffrey Swain, an intelligence interpreter with D Company, gives a wounded North Vietnamese Army (NVA) soldier a cigarette while waiting for an evacuation helicopter.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photographer: Christopher John Bellis. Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial BEL/69/0394/VN.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The use of photographs to record or suppress events, or to support or contest a claim, is nothing new, but in Vietnam the unprecedented degree of coverage of this politically divisive war brought these issues into sharp relief.</p>
<p><strong>The photographs in this article were kindly provided by the Australian War Memorial.</strong></p>
<p><em>Last week marked the 50th anniversary of Australian forces arriving in Vietnam. The Conversation has looked at the war’s legacy throughout a number of articles over this week.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/forgetting-the-american-war-vietnams-friendship-with-its-former-enemy-7935">Part 1: Forgetting the ‘American War’: Vietnam’s friendship with its former enemy</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/vietnam-and-iraq-lessons-to-be-learned-about-mental-health-and-war-6661">Part 2: Vietnam and Iraq: lessons to be learned about mental health and war</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/stabilising-the-middle-east-lessons-from-the-us-rapprochement-with-china-8547">Part 3: Stabilising the Middle East: lessons from the US rapprochement with China</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/8759/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Gist does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An unprecedented level of media coverage made the Vietnam war a watershed moment in the discipline of photography. The images by official military photographers, photojournalists, and individual soldiers…David Gist, Assistant Curator of Photographs , Australian War MemorialLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.