No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy [Hardcover]

Robert Hariman (Author), John Louis Lucaites (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0226316068 | ISBN-13: 978-0226316062 | Publication Date: June 1, 2007 | Edition: annotated edition

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. 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.
Arguing against the conventional belief that visual images short-circuit rational deliberation and radical critique, Hariman and Lucaites make a bold case for the value of visual imagery in a liberal-democratic society. No Caption Needed is a compelling demonstration of photojournalism’s vital contribution to public life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“This authoritative, thought-provoking book analyzes the genesis and reception of key American images from Dorothea Lange''s ''Migrant Mother'' to pictures of the Challenger disaster and 9/11. Drawing extensively on the recent scholarly literature, it demonstrates the pivotal position of the still photograph in modern visual culture. It will be essential reading for students of 20th-century photojournalism, propaganda and mass media. Highly recommended.”—Robin Lenman, general editor, The Oxford Companion to the Photograph

(Robin Lenman )

“I was truly astounded by the intelligence of the analyses in No Caption Needed, and the authors’ refusal to either over- or underestimate the power of these iconic images. Beyond that, Hariman and Lucaites engage in a profound reflection on the role of iconic journalistic photographs in modern democratic societies, the way they become ideological totems, or provocatives to further controversy. This book will be the starting point for any future attempt to deal with the problem of the iconic photograph and its social uses.”--W. J. T. Mitchell, author of What Do Pictures Want?

(W. J. T. Mitchell )

“No Caption Needed is a fascinating study of why a photograph is successful and what happens to that image once it enters America''s collective conscious as an icon. Hariman and Lucaites’s exhaustively researched book provides thoughtful insight into how some photographs have helped shape America''s cultural identity, and explains how one image can be used by different parties to fulfill different agendas. I recommend this book to anybody interested in the history and development of visual culture in the United States.”—Ashley Gilbertson, photojournalist and author of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

(Ashley Gilbertson )

“A penetrating and provocative analysis. . . . The authors’ analytical achievement is enabled by an extraordinary feat of research and reporting.”--James Rosen, The American Interest

 

(James Rosen The American Interest )

"An admirable study."

(John Corner European Journal of Cultural Studies )

"What especially distinguishes this work is the authors'' discussion of the myriad ways iconographic photographs are used, transformed, and appropriated, thereby creating a dynamic rhetorical presence that continues to influence memory, thought, and behavior."—Photography and Culture

(Michael Carlebach Photography and Culture )

"Historians of photography will want to read No Caption Needed not only for its insightful examination of individual photographs but also for its sophisticated analysis of the role of photography in a democratic society."

(Bruce Bustard Journal of American History )

"[The authors] make an eloquent and compelling case, in print, for the centrality of the photographic icon to American cultural debate."—Studies in American Culture

(Sylvia Cook Studies in American Culture )

James A. Winans-Herbert A. Wichelns Memorial Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric and Public Address

(National Communication Association James A. Winans-Herbert A. Wichelns Memorial Award )

James A. Winans-Herbert A. Wichelns Memorial Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric and Public Address

(National Communication Association Diamond Anniversary Book Award )

"[The book] provides a dynamic and much-needed contribution to debates concerning the value of visual representation and its relationship to implicit tensions within liberal democracy. The book arrives on the heels of current efforts within an expanding field of visual studies to push for full understanding of the technological and cultural (and not strictly textual) processes through which meanings are made for images."

(Dorothy Barenscott IVC )

About the Author

Robert Hariman is professor of communication at Northwestern University and the author of Political Style: The Artistry of Power. John Louis Lucaites is professor of communication and culture at Indiana University. He is coauthor of Crafting Equality: America’s Anglo-African World.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; annotated edition edition (June 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226316068
• ISBN-13: 978-0226316062
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #173,090 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #76 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Photojournalism

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Looking at the ways iconic photographs matter in this country, June 9, 2007

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy (Hardcover)

This summer I have been having to constantly update the section of content pages in my Pop Culture class dealing with the "Media Lolitas," and I was thinking of just forgetting about trying to keep up with the escapades of Britney, Lindsay, and Paris and just have "before" and "after" photographs. My thinking was that the iconic images for each of these tabloid princesses were now having a shaved head, being passed out in a car, and crying on the way to jail, respectively. But then I picked up "No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy" by Robert Hariman and John Louis Lucaites and was graphically reminded of what real iconic photographs look like and how such images have a profound impact on not only our popular culture but our popular democracy.

This book looks at nine of the most famous photographs of the past seventy years to examine why these images are so powerful, explain how they remain meaningful across generations, and explore what they expose (and what goes unsaid). The book has nine chapters, most of which are significant revisions of essays examining particular photographs that have previously been published in academic journals (e.g., "Quarterly Journal of Speech"), and all of which represent an interest in how they function rhetorically, as established in the (1) Introduction. (2) "Public Culture, Icons, and Iconoclasts," lays out the author's interpretive method, which includes defining iconic photograph and then identifies five dimensions of cultural meaning that coalesce in the iconic image.

Then we get to the case studies: (3) "The Borders of the Genre: Migrant Mother and the Times Square Kiss," looks at both Dorothea Lange's 1936 photograph of the "Migrant Mother" and Alfred Eisenstaedt's 1945 shot of the sailor kissing the nurse on VJ-Day (to be confused with naval photographer Victor Jorgensen's similar shot known as "Kissing Strangers" that has the virtue of being in the public domain and not owned by TIME-LIFE). The two iconic photos are presented as defining the "greatest" generation and what the authors call the "individuated aggregate," which means individuals who are used to depict collective experiences, in this case the Great Depression and winning World War II respectively. (4) "Performing Civic Identity: Flag Raising On Iwo Jima and Ground Zero" traces how the most popular image of World War II had been used both to celebrate the ideal of the citizen-soldier and to fault subsequent generations for their lack of virtue. With the image of the three firefighters raising a flag at ground zero in New York City, the original image is reprised in a new context. Having watched Clint Eastwood's "Flags of Our Fathers" again recently I found this essay particularly informative and insightful.

The Vietnam War provides the context for the next two iconic photographs. (5) "Dissent and Emotional Management: Kent State" focuses on that particular photograph to demonstrate how photojournalism communicates essential resources for democratic deliberation. (6) "Trauma and Public Memory: Accidental Napalm" details how the photograph of a Vietnamese Girl running from a "friendly" napalm attack exposed the criminal conduct and systematic deception that ended up defining the war. (7) "Liberal Representation and Global Order: Tiananmen Square" considers the political consequences of aesthetic designs. (8) "Ritualizing Modernity's Gamble: The 'Hindenberg' and 'Challenger' Explosions" compares two midair explosions as capturing the profound anxieties that come from living in the machine age, while at the same time organizing public mourning around a virtual pyre to sanction continued sacrifice. Finally, (9) "Conclusion: Visual Democracy" returns to the notion of visual democracy, covering not only the limits of iconic memory, but reconsidering the visual public sphere and the role of photojournalism in a liberal democracy.

The main appeal here is going to be these case studies, where Hariman and Lucaites look at the different ways these different iconic photographs have functioned. For example, to give you a sense of the various ways they find an image resonating across time, with Eisenstaedt's "Times Square Kiss" photo there are also a "Life" cover photograph from two years earlier by the photographer that presages the motif, an advertisement that echoes the image, a version on the cover of a videotape on "America in the '40s," a pair of cartoon rabbits outside of a Disney store in Times Square, a cover of "The New Yorker" with two male sailors kissing, and a photo of VJ-Day being replayed in 2005 for the 60th anniversary that includes not only copycats but a but also the original nurse standing next to a statue striking the pose. Although each case study looks at its photographs in significantly different ways, these examples give you a sense of the extent to which such images can resonate.

The images of the man standing in front of (and up to) a line of tanks and the explosion of "Challenger," may well speak to the death of the iconic photograph in that both of those images exist as not only still shots but as film (in contrast to the WWII photographs that are of specific moments in time). But even in the world of Youtube much of what Hariman and Lucaites have to say about iconic images will still apply. "No Caption Needed" is written for scholars, but I would think that lots of teachers at both the college and high school levels would be interested in taking one or more of these case studies and finding a way of using them in the classroom. Finally, you might want to grab a pair of bookmarks when you read this book, because Hariman and Lucaites have almost a hundred pages of footnotes in the back of their book, arranged chapter by chapter, and most of them end up being content notes rather than just citations of sundry sources. If you like to flip back and forth as you go along, then plan ahead to take advantage of the additional information in the back of the book.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Study of Photojournalism and Democratic Culture, August 30, 2007

By 

Stephen C. O. Gencarella (Amherst, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy (Hardcover)

This is an important book.

No Caption Needed speaks with eloquence to a topic of tremendous significance for contemporary society and the state of democratic public culture. It is a deeply interesting study relevant to academic and general audiences alike. Part history lesson and part analysis of where we are and where we might head, this book examines what democracy means in a culture oriented to the visual. It's one of those gems that makes the reader rethink the world by pointing out something important right under one's nose.

Hariman and Lucaites examine iconic photographs, those images we see again and again and again in public life, and deftly reveal how they contribute to the rhythm of that life. In a series of chapters, they examine haunting and celebratory images that mark American history: the Times Square kiss, the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima and at Ground Zero, the Migrant Mother of the Great Depression, the Kent State massacre, the accidental napalm of the Vietnam War, the defiant man in Tiananmen Square, the Hindenburg and Challenger explosions.

In addition to the book, Hariman and Lucaites also succeed in what is often a remarkably difficult task: hosting a relevant, engaging, and inviting blog, an arena for discussion and intelligent debate with wit and precision:

<A HREF="www.nocaptionneeded.com">No Caption Needed</A>

The review below has admirably captured the content of each chapter, so I will only mention its wide span of audiences. A critical scholarly book, No Caption Needed is a significant contribution to the burgeoning study of visual rhetoric, and should be mandatory reading for graduate students and advanced undergraduates in communication programs. It also addresses media and cultural studies, and would find a welcome place on the syllabi of journalism, anthropology, sociology, history, political science, art history, performance studies, education, and popular culture courses.

This book--and the blog--should also not be missed by the political strategist, policy wonk, and political writer of any persuasion. It should also not be missed by the general reader. Hariman and Lucaites offer a corrective to the slew of cheap advice pouring out these days on how to seize control of the public sphere. They remind us about something much more important: the need to question how democracy is performed, and how its images inspire citizens to action--whether to prepare for war, to dissent, or even just to buy things. All of us, regardless of political affiliation, would find it rewarding to pause and consider the deep questions this book raises about the power of the image and the future of liberal democracy.