Reflections on Clouds and Bombs

By Dr. Sophie-Charlotte Opitz*

On several levels the book Clouds and bombs, by Juan Hein, is a relevant piece for research on and about photography and memory. 

1. New Memory, Remediation and Premediation 

Clouds and bombs takes up dynamics of remediation and premediation. Remediation[i] describes the active use of past mediatized acts. Premediation[ii], on the other hand, is an unconscious provision of schemata by the media themselves, on which further mediatizations can draw. In the case of Hein’s book, one can see how the author has selected those very images that come from our past (remediation), but in doing so Hein himself has created a media product that builds on the schemata of existing mediatizations of visual events (premediation). Clouds and bombs becomes consequently a part of these very mediatized movements.

The close interconnection of media and remembering has become a more widespread part of collective remembering in the last two decades due to the progressive development in the digital sector and the expansion of its application and use possibilities. The expansion and outsourcing of individual and collective memory to digital memory storage is what Andrew Hoskins calls "New Memory". According to him, this kind of memory was triggered by the connective turn, which describes a "shift to the massively increased abundance, pervasiveness and accessibility of communication networks and nodes"[iii]. The content produced individually and locally gets implemented on digital platforms and social media and thereby gets globally accessible (for those who have Internet). Said so, this photobook project stands exemplary for and against this movement, because on the one hand it feeds its visual material (and memory material) from the sector of New Memory, but at the same time, as a physical book, it eludes these tendencies.

2. Materiality

Jorg Colberg beautifully describes that "photo books live in the space between a person's hand and eyes"[iv]. He draws attention to the important aspect of haptics and I would like to add: A book is always perceived multisensory: One can see, feel and smell a book. It is precisely here that I find the discrepancy in Clouds and bombs between material and image interesting. Because the image, which is digital found footage, rubs up against the physicality of the pages. I understand the resulting tension as a tool that once again refines the content of the book. 

3. History of Perception 

In the sense of the theory of cultural memory, Clouds and bombs shows very nicely that experiences can never be immediate, since they always fall back on existing stocks of knowledge. When looking at these pictures, it can be understood that media does not only represent but shape perception. Or to put it in a nutshell: observing the world (often) means observing pictures. At the same time, the discrepancy between the world and the image becomes clear while looking at these pictures and asking yourself: Is this what I see reality? Of course, this question leads nowhere, because what I see is neither a bomb nor a cloud. It is a picture of a bomb (or a cloud). And even further: It is an analogue print of a digital picture of a bomb/cloud.

In this extreme distance of danger the viewer can sit back and indulge in his own voyeurism. Isn’t the destruction so far away that we can enjoy it? It will not hurt us, right? I am pointing here to the fascination with war/danger that is part of our human history and has been described from Voltaire to Goya to Arendt. The urge to experience war without being present points to the theory of "Metaphorical War" by Holert and Terkessidis[v]. These wars are not physically experienced but characterized by the use of warlike iconography. The media-mediated images allow the recipient to have a feeling of sympathy and to experience a "peaceful side" of war as an entertaining spectacle. Clouds and bombs, which is both a product of and a reflection on these mechanisms, is also created in these cultural dynamics.

Germany, April 2021

* Phd. Visual Cultural Studies, author of Bilderregungen-Die Produktionsmechanismen zeitgenössischer Kriegsfotografie (Jonas Verlag, 2020), Director of Exhibitions & Collections The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm (Germany)/ New York

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[i] For further insights into the concept of remediation see: J. D. Bolter & R. Grusin (1999). Remediation: Understanding New Media. Cambridge: MIT Press.

[ii] For further insights into the concept of remediation see: A. Erll (2011) Memory in Culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. 

[iii] A. Hoskins (2010). New Memory. In: Andreas Brøgger, Omar Kholeif (Ed.). Vision, Memory, and Media. Liverpool: FACT; p. 72.

[iv] J. Colberg (2016). Photobooks. New York: Routlegde; p. 3.

[v] M. Terkessidis & T. Holert (2002). Entsichert. Köln: Kiepenheuer und Witsch Verlag.