Politics of Representation: Re/reading Edward Steichen’s 1951 Photography Exhibition, Faces of Korea

• In Event: Possibilities of Hope—Horizons of Media(tion): Deterritorializing Representational Regimes in Print Media Across History

Abstract

As one of Edward Steichen’s large war-themed exhibitions organised at the Museum of Modern Art, Korea: The Impact of War on Photographs (1951) displayed more than 130 photographs from the Korean War, which were selected from photographic files of government agencies, military services and press magazines. Following its popular success, the show subsequently traveled around America with a revised title, ‘Faces of Korea.’ As the interchangeable titles of the exhibition suggests, it was a humanistic account of the traumatic war, achieved with a display of visual records that dramatically captured expressive ‘faces’ of the soldiers and civilians affected the conflict. By revisiting and examining the comprehensive archive documents of the show for the first time, this paper suggests that the photographs were strategically selected, manipulated and arranged as part of the curatorial process, providing an essentialised, universal representation of the war. More specifically, I argue that Steichen not only gave ‘face’ to the war to render the distant regional battle more personal, comprehensible and immediate for home-front audiences, but also strictly regulated the inclusion and absence of certain ‘faces’ to justify―and further perpetuate―the brutality and violence exercised by America and South Korea. When considering photography as a form of public media which functions as a site of (de)humanisation through ceaseless ‘effacement’ of the Other, Faces of Korea can be understood as decisively political and violent portrayal of the Korean War. More importantly, as critical discourses on the politics and ethics of representing war have intensified in the recent times with the growing threat of war, terrorism and total destruction, the issues and problems presented by the exhibition provide a chance to critically reflect on the present as well as the historical past.

Author

• Sooyoung Leam, Courtauld Institute of Art