Discourses of Power in Historical News Photographs: Bain News Service and Representation in the Age of Imperialism
Denitsa Yotova
University of Maryland, College Park, USA
Abstract. News photographs, as a form of visual communication, serve a critical role in the formation of knowledge and understanding of the past and present. The ability to interpret news images in the context of their production is an essential visual literacy skill that aids the effectiveness of both the production and the consumption of visual messages. To illuminate some approaches to the news image interpretation process, this paper investigates visual discourses of power in early twentieth century news photography. The study takes a closer look at one of the first news photo agencies in the United States, Bain News Service, and the images it provided to the American press. The visual representations of the social, political, technological, and cultural progress of the United States, as compared to other nations, demonstrate that the news photo service helped introduce, at least visually, both the domestic “self” and the foreign “other” to the American people in ways that suggested domestic superiority. The paper analyzes select photographs George Grantham Bain’s service produced between 1900 and 1920, to investigate how these mediated representations served to illuminate differences and otherness and to position the United States as a world power. Ultimately, the paper argues that Bain’s news photographs, as sold to and eventually published by the press, promoted a sense of nationalism and exceptionalism in the age of empire.
Keywords: Bain News Service, news photography, visual image interpretation, visual literacy, representation, power, cultural diplomacy, nationalism, exceptionalism