In the Aftermath of Conflict: Three Photographs
In the Aftermath of Conflict: Three Photographs

Summary/Abstract: Can a photograph tell the truth? Roland Barthes recalls the amazement he could still feel when he looked at a portrait of Jérôme Bonaparte: “Quite some time ago I happened on a photograph of Napoleon’s youngest brother, Jérôme, taken in 1852. And I realized then, with an amazement I have not been able to lessen since: ‘I am looking at eyes that looked at the Emperor.’” For me what Charles Meyer’s portraits from Vukovar and Kosovo offer is something like Barthes’ amazement, that I am looking at eyes that looked at... In their detailed precision – so that as I look at these three photographs I find that there is always more to see, that more is always waiting patiently for me to find it – the art that guides my eyes has the feeling of a truthfulness that I experience as enhanced vision.

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