No caption needed: iconic photographs, public culture, and liberal democracy

Abstract

"In No Caption Needed, Robert Hariman and John Louis Lucaites provide the definitive study of the iconic photograph as a dynamic form of public art. Their critical analyses of nine individual icons explore the photographs themselves and their subsequent circulation through an astonishing array of media, including stamps, posters, billboards, editorial cartoons, TV shows, Web pages, tattoos, and more. As these iconic images are reproduced and refashioned by governments, commercial advertisers, journalists, grassroots advocates, bloggers, and artists, their alterations throw key features of political experience into sharp relief. Iconic images are revealed as models of visual eloquence, signposts for collective memory, means of persuasion across the political spectrum, and a crucial resource for critical reflection."--Jacket.

Contents

Public culture, icons, and iconoclasts -- The borders of the genre : Migrant mother and the Times Square kiss -- Performing civic identity : Flag raisings at Iwo Jima and Ground Zero -- Dissent and emotional management : Kent State -- Trauma and public memory : Accidental napalm -- Liberal representation and global order : Tiananmen Square -- Ritualizing modernity's gamble : the Hindenburg and Challenger explosions -- Conclusion: Visual democracy.