Is it possible to represent war other than by images of combat, corpses and rubble? Topographies of War features
photographic and video works that ignore confrontation, injury and death, and instead document war in a disembodied
way through its sites, territories and constructed spaces. This book contains topographical essays that explore war
through its geography, without denying the human cost of fighting. In terms of military strategy, such iconographic
choices coincide with the increased use of simulation techniques and the spread of long-range weaponry, as well as
with the military’s media censorship and the virtual impossibility for photographers and video-makers to operate freely
on the ground.
Has the territory of war become an abstract concept, an ideological construction, a given that cannot be represented?
Topographies of War tackles this question through the work of Jananne Al-Ani, Luc Delahaye, Harun Farocki, An-My Lê,
Paola De Pietri, Walid Raad, Jo Ractliffe, Till Roeskens, Eyal Weizman and Donovan Wylie.