Underexposed: Censored Pictures and Hidden History

by Colin Jacobson (Editor)

The victor's account of history may be the one that is recorded, but photojournalism still has the power to undermine the official version. Such is the corrective testimony of this startling collection of banned, suppressed or conveniently forgotten news images depicting moments from the last century where the propaganda needs of politicians, despots and stars clashed with sometimes awkward, sometimes horrifying truths. Incorporating images and text from the Index On Censorship and the Hulton Getty Picture Collection, the images represent a reality check on alleged events from the last hundred years, documenting a power struggle with rival cultural forces of media and information. Reclaimed from the trash cans of the Second World War, Hitler's preening speech rehearsals come back to argue with his self-made myth. From the cruelty of Stalin's Russia to fundamentalist chaos in Iran, via disgruntled starlets, ecological destruction and US nuclear tests, Underexposed gathers some of the most ideologically dangerous photographs ever taken and releases them to haunt the increasingly manipulated, retouched present. With an incisive forward by Colin Jacobson, the book is a seminal work for all those curious about what lies beneath the last century's layers of spin.

Genres: Photography, History, Art

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Andy Paciorek · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book in passing as I found it quite cheap online and it sounded intriguing. It was a fortunate purchase as it now takes its place alongside my other favourite photography books.
Artistically there are some fantastic shots in it, but truly every picture within tells a story. In some cases a tale quite unlike its initial appearance.
There are some shots that are harrowing and haunting. The text that accompanies the images is concise, effective and fascinating. A very interesting work on photojournalism that I enthusiastically recommend but some images may be too raw and upsetting for some readers.

[Boudreault Arthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice collection of stories and photographs, some famous, some not.
Good to study or to be used as a teaching material for working on censorship and the historical use of photographs.

[Paulinlong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sobering and horrifying book about the use and misuse of photographs and the cynicism of censorship. A must read.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of photographs from the days before digital cameras or the internet, the days of cameras and film and newspapers and news magazines. It is an impossibly distant world and getting more distant year by year. A photo was not,even back then, a guarantee of truth (see David King's marvellous The Commissar Vanishes) but pictures, still in newspapers or film on the evening had impact far beyond anything that can be imagined in our current fragmented and varied collection of media outlets. But the images in this told a truth, no one tried to pretend they were fake, they did not tell everything but what they may to have failed to convey in terms of 'balence' was compensated by capturing a visceral truth. Even for those, unlike my generation, who have seen it reproduced as photo or as a brief film in a history programme, the image of the South Vietnamese army officer shooting a Viet Cong supporter in the head on a city street in the middle of day totally aware that he was being filmed still speaks more loud and clear about everything that was wrong about that war and that America was on the loosing side.

This is a brilliant and informative book whose startling images are mesmerising and thought provoking.

[Wyma · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title is a play on words since the book is about photographic images that have been doctored for the purpose of duping the public. What has been underexposed is the trickery behind the photos.

I suspect this book gets high rating due to the content. It brings us doctored photos from all countries and in all periods. A surprising one is Abraham Lincoln's doctored photo. Yes, the head of Honest Abe was put atop another statesman's strapping body because Abe had been ill and was quite thin. They felt that his body might not inspire confidence.

Sections are devoted to Hitler and also Stalin, both famous for rubbing out people in real life and then rubbing them out of official photos. Posed photos vs. real, candid shots, famous and the not so famous of the same thing (Marines putting up the American flag at Iwo Jimo)abound making this a must-read book.

However the quality of the photos is often poor, likely due to poor quality originals and the text body is not designed for quick reading. Sometimes the text is a photographic image, very difficult to read. Even when it is not an image it can be hard going due to lack of attention to type and page design. The photos that jump out at you when projected onto a screen seem almost mundane when rendered in black and white and a lot of gray on the page of the book.

But they make their point. This is an important book and ought to be in every library so that everyone can see how often politicians (we already knew about the movie industry) and their devoted campaigners trick our eyes with photos and film.

[Susannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a powerful book of photojournalism which was originally conceived by the Index on Censorship. Its aim is to bring to light "some of the most glaring examples of photographs which have been banned, doctored, suppressed or manipulated in order to dupe the viewer."
I was alerted to the existence of this book from an online course that I was taking via the Coursera platform called "The Camera Never Lies," which profiled some of the photos featured in this book. I wanted to read it so much that when I learnt my public library did not have it, I interloaned it from a university library.
There are some harrowing images included in Underexposed. There are pictures of the dead, the suffering, and those whose stories went unheard and neglected at the time of their struggle. The images are challenging and difficult to view in many cases, yet they portray moments in history that have occurred and cannot be denied simply from refusing to look at the image. Photographs are accompanied by text which puts them in historical context and explains why they were kept from view at the time.
Recommended for anyone interested in photojournalism, and in the use of propaganda throughout the twentieth century.