War Porn - 1st edition (*signed*)

The War Porn project started as a reflexion of the author Christoph Bangert on the self-censorship he imposed on some images he brought from the conflicts where he worked.

The author asks whether these images should be shown, regardless of the fact that many of them are unbearable, so that everyone of us really realises the hard thruth of death, violence and suffering that we so often hear about in the news.

A very powerful book of course, raw and difficult to look at. The author puts his images in perspective through his family history and his grand-father who was a Nazi officer and whose main recollection, when he was talking about WWII, was of his horse.

This small-format book, with a very sleek and simple design (swiss-binding, gray cardboard covers), does not reveal all the images. The author leaves the choice and decision to look at some of the most violent ones upon the reader: some of the pages remain uncut, and - in the end - you will have to decide whether these images should be seen or remain unseen!

With an introduction by Christoph Bangert, captions of all the images gathered at the end, and an epilogue with the personal archive images of the grand-father.

Design & Editing : Teun van der Heijden, Chiho Bangert, Klaus Kehrer, Rafal Milach.

Publisher' presentation:

"Do I exploit my subjects? Is it morally justifiable to work as a photographer in war zones and disaster areas? Why are we all so attracted to images of other people’s misery? Am I producing »War Porn«?
As a photographer covering conflicts and natural disasters, Christoph Bangert is regularly confronted with a dilemma: On the one hand he tries to document events as truthful to his own experience as possible but on the other hand he needs to accommodate several layers of self-censorship. The first layer of self-censorship is located inside of his own brain. Bangert has no recollection at all of taking some of the pictures seen in the book. The second layer of self-censorship is executed by the publications he works for, the third layer is the viewer’s.
Using his images taken during the past ten years in Afghanistan, Iraq, Indonesia, Lebanon, and Gaza, Bangert started an experiment: What would happen if we suppressed our need for self-censorship for once? The result is a raw, intense, mysterious, brutal and at times maybe a shocking and controversial book."

192 pages - Hardcover, no DJ

Kehrer Verlag, 2014

*Signed*

New - Mint condition