Torture Culture: Lynching Photographs and the Images of Abu Ghraib

In the topical commentary on the moral disgrace of Abu Ghraib, several commentators have noted a resemblance between the torture photos from Iraq and American lynching photos. These similarities have remained largely unexplored, however, including perhaps the most significant effects of the two sets of photos, which is that both came to function as sites of resistance against the very acts they represent. Between deeds that are very different in nature and motivation, and which took place at very different times and places, what might we learn from the similarities? What indeed constitutes these similarities? In this essay, I examine the usefulness of parallels between the photographs taken at Abu Ghraib and lynching photographs from the early decades of the twentieth century, and explore the political responses to the Abu Ghraib photos both through their public distribution and in contemporary artworks and civic displays.