Start Date
12-6-2011 9:30 AM
End Date
12-6-2011 12:00 PM
Subject Areas
Asia, North America, modern, bodies, reproduction, war
Abstract
The Vietnam War is long over yet it continues in the bodies of Vietnamese and Americans. The effects of the U.S. use of herbicides persist in the Vietnamese landscape, veterans, and their children, and in the production of a class of sick and disabled people in the US, and especially in Vietnam. The most heavily sprayed herbicide–“Agent Orange”–is known for causing cancers, Parkinson’s disease, pregnancy loss, and congenital malformations. This paper offers preliminary thoughts from new research on the visual record and representations of Agent Orange.
At the turn of the twenty-first century, the work of documentary photographers and film makers on the subject circulates internationally and is seen repeatedly in news, veteran, and specialized publications, documentary films, on the internet, and in museum exhibits within Vietnam. They challenge official U.S. government and chemical company claims of the safety of Agent Orange. The photos and films both aim to arouse emotional responses of outrage, guilt, and pity and, most important, stimulate their viewers into action on behalf of the Agent Orange Victims of Vietnam. These are the traditional aims of documentary photojournalim: to show what something looks like and feels like; to bear witness. At the same time, the photographs conform to sentimental photography of disabilities and freaks–provoking pity. Although the films spotlight people with disabilities, they are not documentaries arising from disability rights movements.
Keywords
Vietnam, U.S., Disabilities, Agent Orange, film, photography, abortion, war
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
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Body Counts: Looking at Agent Orange Victims in the U.S. and Vietnam
The Vietnam War is long over yet it continues in the bodies of Vietnamese and Americans. The effects of the U.S. use of herbicides persist in the Vietnamese landscape, veterans, and their children, and in the production of a class of sick and disabled people in the US, and especially in Vietnam. The most heavily sprayed herbicide–“Agent Orange”–is known for causing cancers, Parkinson’s disease, pregnancy loss, and congenital malformations. This paper offers preliminary thoughts from new research on the visual record and representations of Agent Orange.
At the turn of the twenty-first century, the work of documentary photographers and film makers on the subject circulates internationally and is seen repeatedly in news, veteran, and specialized publications, documentary films, on the internet, and in museum exhibits within Vietnam. They challenge official U.S. government and chemical company claims of the safety of Agent Orange. The photos and films both aim to arouse emotional responses of outrage, guilt, and pity and, most important, stimulate their viewers into action on behalf of the Agent Orange Victims of Vietnam. These are the traditional aims of documentary photojournalim: to show what something looks like and feels like; to bear witness. At the same time, the photographs conform to sentimental photography of disabilities and freaks–provoking pity. Although the films spotlight people with disabilities, they are not documentaries arising from disability rights movements.