Wanted Dead or Alive

Braquehais. Vendome Column after its Destruction

Shortly after the advent of photography in 1839 people began to use the new technology to achieve all manner of ends: photograms of British algae, photographs of important events, to create a catalog of items, ethnological “studies,” pornography, capture movements beyond the scope of the eye. The list spans the imagination and in 1871, after the French Communards took back Paris, French photographers reentered the city and began to document the destruction of the city, the barricades, the Communards, and the dead. While many of these images were used as propaganda, by both the Communards and the Versailles’ Government, the photographs took on a particularly new use, as evidence of crimes committed against the Government--Big Brother was now watching.

            The Paris police used the photographs to identify suspected Communards. The Police judged that individual portraits and group views of the barricades provided objective visual evidence about the participants in the rebellion. The Parisian police paid more than 1,000 francs for nearly 2,500 portraits of insurgents thought to still be in the city.[i] Copies were sent to authorities in areas where escaped Communards were thought likely to hide and to railroad stations, ports, and frontier checkpoints. Officials in June of 1871 spent 3,500 francs for reproductions of these images and had them distributed throughout Paris.[ii]

            The photograph created a new form of evidence. A photograph was now an eyewitness to an event and could be used to pass judgment. The photograph became perhaps the most important tool of intelligence gathering and for the first time in history a photograph could get you killed. Repressive regimes now had a tool to document dissidents’ gatherings and dissident groups had a tool to document the establishment.

 

Photo by Google images. Recently found photo of Michael Collins

           Michael Collins was visibly unidentified by the British police for years and because of this he was able to travel more freely than other identified members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Collins would often ride his bicycle through the streets of Dublin with less worry than other IRB members because there were no known photographs of him. Some might argue that one of the reasons Collins rose so highly in the IRB was initially because he could travel and speak in places other, more highly recognized, members could not chance to be seen. [iii] Eventually Collins was photographed and his strategy of secrecy changed as well.

            During the 2003 invasion of Iraq the US military issued a set of playing cards to enable troops to easily identify persons of interest in Saddam’s regime. The ace of spades identified as SADDAM HUSAYN AL-TIKRITI: President and the king of spades identified as ALI HASAN AL-MAJID:AL-TIKRITI; Presidential Advisor/ RCC Member. The comic nature, effective strategy, and utter degradation of the value of human life that these decks of play cards symbolize is only one of an endless array of examples where photographs are used by the state to identify and execute persons of interest.

            Within the context of identification cat and mouse games arose. False identities arose, body doubles were used, masks were worn, and facial surgery became prevalent. My favorite story involving questioned identity comes from the author B. Traven, famous for penning The Treasure of the Sierra Madres. One of the only known photographs of B. Traven, it is unknown if this is even his real name or another of his pseudonyms, was taken on the set during filming of The Treasure of the Sierra Madres. 

Unid. Life Magazine. B.Traven

Traven claims that it was his associate Hal Croves—another of Traven’s pseudonyms—who was present at the filming, whereas several journalists claim it was Traven, and still further obfuscating the identity, the director, John Huston, claimed it couldn’t have been Traven because Croves’ personality was inconsistent with the wonderful vivid writer’s personality.[iv]  

Another tactic used by dissident groups that couldn’t remain hidden were to become well enough known that it wouldn’t be in the State’s best interest to have them assassinated for fear of them becoming martyrs. An instance of this situation would be Aung San Suu Kyi prolonged house arrest in Burma.

            The way in which individuals or groups can view photographs as an objective eyewitness to events and the elements of photographs that create a visual likeness to an individual changed the way in which the world operated.  In all of the examples I’ve used in this short essay a binary begins to take shape. The photograph is used as a tool, by the self-recognized right and just, to capture and/or execute the dissident or perceived other. To the extent that a photograph as propaganda is used to introduce and reinforce the dichotomy is beyond the scope of this essay but it is interesting to note that the current proliferation of cameras, including entire cities like London being under a watchful eye, the number of photographs have increased but they are still being used just as they once were back in 1871.

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[i] English, Donald E. Political Uses of Photography in the Third French Republic 1871-1914. Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1984. p.70.

[ii] ibid.

[iii] Hart, Peter. Mick: The Real Michael Collins.  Penguin Books, 2007.

[iv] Pateman, Roy. The Man Nobody Knows: The Life and Legacy of B.Traven. University Press of America:2005. p.7-15.