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A Public Theology for Peace Photography: A Critical Analysis of the Roles of Photojournalism in Peacebuilding, with the Special Reference to the Gwangju Uprising in South Korea Sangduk Kim i ii I, Sangduk Kim, attests that this thesis has been composed by me, and that the work is my own, and that the work has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification. Sangduk Kim iii iv Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Prof. Jolyon Mitchell for his continuous support of my PhD studies and related research, for his kindness, encouragement, and immense knowledge. His guidance helped me throughout the time of research and writing of this thesis. I could not have imagined having a better supervisor and mentor for my PhD study. My sincere thanks also go to Dr. Cecilia Clegg who was my second supervisor and my current second supervisor Dr. Leah Robinson who deepened my theological reflections. Besides my supervisors, I would like to thank my thesis committee: Prof. Sebastian Kim and Dr. Geoffrey Stevenson for their insightful comments and encouragement, but also for the hard questions which encouraged me to widen my research from various perspectives. I would like to thank the Somang Church Scholarship (2013-2014) and the May 18 Memorial Foundation (2015-2016) for the generous financial support which enable me to concentrate on my research. I am grateful to the New College community for welcoming and supporting me in many ways. I am particularly thankful for being able to participate in different research projects such as the Centre for Theology and Public Issues (CTPI) and the Photography Research Seminar at the University of Edinburgh. I thank my good friends, Evan, Steve, and Tom for proofreading my writing many times and made helpful suggestions. I also thank Miss Margaret Acton who edited and proofread my thesis. Finally, I would like to thank my family: my parents and my sister who supported and prayed for me during the program, and above all, my wife Minjung Kim who became a light in my life and keeps inspiring me to be a better person before God and in society. v vi ABSTRACT In this thesis, I investigate the different ways in which photography can be used to build peace in conflict situations. Although its role can be ambivalent, I primarily focus on its positive uses with the question: to what extent can photography promote peace rather than violence and conflict? My contention is that photography has the potential to contribute to building peace through several important roles in pre-conflict, post- conflict, and conflict situations: it can bear witness to truth, represent victims’ suffering, encourage nonviolent resistance against violence, reconstruct painful memories, and re-imagine justice and reconciliation. To do this, I primarily focus on the May 18th Gwangju Democratic Uprising which happened between the 18th and 27th of May 1980 in the city of Gwangju, in the south-western region of South Korea. In the first chapter, I explore the relation between photography and peacebuilding, providing a brief history of “war photography” particularly between the mid-19th century and the mid-20th century. I focus on two movements in war photography—realism and surrealism. Then, I consider the role of war photography from a peacebuilding perspective, by focusing on the concept of “social psychological distance” between photographs and audience. In the second chapter, I consider how a photograph can reveal truth in violent conflict situations, focusing on the concept of “bearing witness”. In comparison with the concept of “eye witnessing”, I examine how photographs have contributed to bearing witness to violent events. In this fashion, I focus on the importance of journalists and their roles as bearing witness to truth. In the third chapter, I investigate how photography can represent a victim’s suffering and promote empathy. For this, I re-examine compassion fatigue theory, drawing upon the work of Susan Sontag and Susan Moeller. I then explore the theme through analysis of social documentary photography in the mid-twentieth century in the United States. In the fourth chapter, I argue that photography has the potential play an active role in empowering people to overcome fear and resist violence nonviolently. This offers a balance to those who propose a compassion fatigue theory, arguing that repeated exposure to violent images can reduce moral sensibility. In other words, even vii though photography can produce cultural fatigue from overwhelming violent representations, it can also promote moral sensibility and social actions against violence. In the fifth chapter, I investigate the role of photography in the aftermath of violent conflict, mainly focusing on the relationship between remembering and painful history. Drawing on cultural memory theories such as those developed by Maurice Halbwachs and Aleida and Jan Assmann, I contend that social identities can be reconstructed through the process of remembering. I argue that photography can be a tool for remembering the painful history wisely, mainly focusing on reconstruction of identity and healing of cultural trauma (Hicks 2002; Volf 2006). I explore how photography contributes to the practice of remembering painful history rightly. In the final chapter, I focus on reconciliation and restorative justice as an alternative approach to building a just and peaceful society in the aftermath of a conflict such as the Gwangju Uprising. Because of the relational aspect of reconciliation and restorative justice, I argue, the approach can contribute to the development of the ‘moral imagination’ that overcomes the limits of the current juridical justice system. Reconciliation cannot be only the end of peacebuilding, but also a practical guideline for achieving both peace and justice. viii Table of Contents Introduction …..……………………………………………………………………. 1 Concepts of Peace and Peacebuilding ……………………………………………. 2 Two Models in Arts and Peacebuilding ………………………………………….. 7 Placing Photography in Peacebuilding .......……………………………………… 9 Contribution to Church and Theology ………………………………………….. 13 Methodology ……………………………………………………………………. 18 Brief Outlines of the Thesis Chapters …………………………………………… 23 Chapter 1. Rethinking War Photography from a Peacebuilding Perspective … 27 1.1 A History of Photography as Moral Response to War …………………….. 27 1.1.1 A Brief History of War Photography (1840-1900) …………………… 27 1.1.2 Photojournalism and War …………………………………………….. 32 1.2 Two War Photography Movements: Realism and Surrealism …………….. 34 1.2.1 Realism in War Photography ……………………………………….… 34 1.2.2 Critique: Too Shocking to Bear It …………………………………….. 36 1.2.3 Surrealist Photography during the World Wars ……………………….. 39 1.2.4 Critique: Too Distorted to Get It ……………………………………… 45 1.3 A New Lens for Peacebuilding Photography ……………………………… 49 1.3.1 Social Psychological Distance ……………………………………...… 49 1.3.2 A Lens for a Holistic Vision ………………………………………...… 52 1.4 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………… 55 Chapter 2. Revealing Truth and Witnessing Violence …………………..………. 57 2.1 Introduction to the May 18 Democratic Uprising ………………………..… 60 2.1.1 Social and Political Context ……………………………………….….. 60 2.1.2 What Happened in the May of Gwangju ……………………………… 62 2.1.3 Why Truth Matters ………………………………………………….… 64 2.2 Concepts of Witnessing …………………………………………………..… 66 2.2.1 Legal Concept of Witness to Truth ……………………………………. 67 ix 2.2.2 Theological Concepts of Witness ……………………………………... 67 2.2.3 Witness as Testimonial ………………………………………………... 69 2.3 Debates of Media Witnessing in Conflict Reporting …………………….… 71 2.3.1 Witnessing to Visual Media Witnessing ……………………………….. 72 2.3.2 Eye-Witnessing vs. Bearing Witness ………………………………….. 74 2.3.3 Bearing Witness as a Survivor’s Testimony ……………………………76 2.4 Photojournalists Bearing Witness to Violence ……………………………… 79 2.4.1 Journalistic Vocation ………………………………………………….. 79 2.4.2 Frontline, Rooftop, and Embedded Journalism ……………………..… 81 2.4.3 Debates on the Journalism of Attachment …………………………….. 82 2.5 Case Studies: Eddie Adams and Ron Haviv ……………………………….. 84 2.5.1 Eddie Adams’ Saigon Execution (1968) ………………………………. 84 2.5.2 Ron Haviv’s Testimony (1992) ………………………………………... 87 2.6 Bearing Witness to Truth of the Gwangju Massacre ……………………….. 89 2.6.1 Journalistic Vocation as Revealing Truth ……………………………… 90 2.6.2 Bearing Witness to the Public …………………………………………. 92 2.6.3 Bearing Witness to Victims ……………………………………………. 93 2.7 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………. 94 Chapter 3. Representing the Pain of Victims ………………………………….… 97 3.1 Debates on Photographic Representation of Suffering ……………………. 100 3.1.1 Photographer, Victim,