Unfixing Violence: Photography and Oblivion

This essay considers the relationship between the first photographs, which no longer exist because they could not yet be ‘fixed’, and the kinds of disappearance that characterise contemporary violence. From the status of those whose deaths are seen but subsequently deemed invisible by evolving global news cycles, to social media Stories that are made to disappear, these examples demonstrate the fraught and contradictory power of photographic memory as it resists the pull of oblivion, but often fails. Visible and invisible images from two current conflicts – in Ukraine and Gaza – are considered, raising the question of ‘fixity’ as a political issue within the global economy of media and memory. As regular power blackouts render Gaza increasingly invisible, we must rely on the photographs made in preceding days, showing us its future in the past in a way that photography can rarely do. In a recent conversation, I discussed with renowned war photographer Lynsey Addario the biggest challenge of photographing a full-scale invasion now in its third successive year: to constantly find ways of renewing its visibility, fixing it in the eyes and minds of the world rather than letting it slip away.