Forget about the power that, according to Mao Zedong, flows from the barrels of guns. Far more power actually flows through the matte black barrel of the camera lens – and this is a power that flows far more silently and, much of the time, works its magic very subtly. But rarely do photographs explode on the media scene like the now-infamous cover of the 9 August issue of Time magazine. Rarely, too, do photos present us with such a questionable and teachable moment about photography and its political uses.
Photography, both still and film, is a powerful language. It needs no translators and is technology-driven, giving it a reach no language has ever had. But one has to understand how it is used. Today, the endless flow of photographs is increasingly constructing our social and political landscape – constructing us, really, by manipulating the mental spaces in which we live, defining our very drishti, our sense of self. Cameras construct our worlds in ways that word-oriented languages cannot, because the visual language they present is perceived to have credibility – an automatic connection to an 'objective truth' that words do not. Images are thus becoming the bricks that construct our increasingly visual world, a world that can no longer simply ban the making of pictures as was once the case.
This new world is one in which technologies drive the move away from language-riven cultures towards vast visual 'information landscapes' that are increasingly part of an information war. According to the Project for a New American Century (a US-based conservative think-tank), this new war is about 'full-spectrum domination' – domination that is blatant about not allowing any challenge to American Power, be it military, economic or cultural. This, says the Project, is a domination that seeks 'control of all international commons including Space and Cyberspace', and is driven by never-ending wars that see whole societies as battlefields. In the language of the US Marines, these are battlefields where 'fourth-generation warfare' takes place, where 'the action will occur concurrently – throughout all participants' depth, including their society as a cultural and not just as physical entity.' 'Full Spectrum Domination' is not just about control of their lands and resources, but about control of people, their cultures, ideas and ideologies.
It is against this backdrop of militarised information control that one needs to look at the recent cover of Time magazine. It was Time founder Henry Luce, after all, who first projected the idea of the 20th century as an 'American century' – and he subsequently founded a media empire to project his agenda. Time, Fortune and Life magazines and even the 'March of Time' film series served to mediate his conservative ideas of corporate control of political power. Interestingly, Luce is said to have used the term 'American century' in a 1941 editorial in the now-defunct Life, a publication that remains iconic for its use of photography. Born in China, the son of an American missionary, Luce wanted the United States to act more missionary-like in the global and universal projection of its power beyond its territory. Go beyond territorial control, he seemed to be suggesting, into the control of ideas and ideologies. Is it any wonder, then, that the photographs from Life magazine of the Vietnam War that I saw in my teens seemed to glorify that war?