"Seven promises and letdowns of urgent image collections of violence: The curse of the archive"
Why do people risk their lives and wellbeing to work with images of violence despite knowing that it is unlikely their work will lead to justice?
In the article, Seven promises and letdowns of urgent image collections of violence: The curse of the archive, we look at archiving practices related to images that document human rights abuses and other grave violence.
The article is based on years of collaborations and research with people who archive and work with a vast variety of small and large digital image archives to support human rights, accountability and reconciliation. These people who work intensely with images of violence at once recognise taking and preserving them as important while simultaneously recognising that it is unrealistic that the images will provide a path towards accountability and reconciliation. Thus, people remain committed to the images because they have a potential for justice, not because they have a probability for justice. We call this the curse of the archive.
The article has grown out two research projects – Archiving the Future (led by Andreas Bandak) and Views of Violence (led by Nina Grønlykke Mollerup), both funded by The Independent Research Fund Denmark.
The article is available open access.