Investigating: "The Scandal Was in the Coverup", and Deceit in Photo Proof

The documentary Standard Operating Procedure, directed by Errol Morris, begins with a short close-up interview that immediately voices-over to a dark screen. There, three beautiful and pastoral pictures of Iraqi sunsets framed by white, come into view one at a time. After the last picture is shown for a few moments, it begins to fall back into the blackness, as other fluttering white-framed pictures begin to also fall into frame, and thus also follow the course of disappearing into the vortex of black. We can make out images on some of these new pictures, and most are very unlike the serene “postcard” like photos we were shown at the beginning. We see images of people with bags on their heads, nakedness and seemingly violent torture. This raises a question: Why begin such a scene with three “postcard” like images? In her essay, “A Strange and Bitter Crop: The Spectacle of Torture,” Hazel Carby analyzes the medium of photography in trying to flesh-out what exactly went on at Abu Ghraib, in also correlating the images to an already-viewed narrative that can be seen in historical American lynching photography. She writes, “The importance of spectacles of abuse, the taking of photographs and videos, the preservation and circulation of the visual image of the tortured/lynched body, the erotic sexual exploitation which produced pleasure in the tortures – all these practices are continuities in the history of American racism. An examination of evidence of the spectacle of American racial subordination makes this clear” (Carby, 4). She develops her argument around the idea that, as lynching photos were made into postcards with inscriptions reading, ‘wish you were here,’ so were the Abu Ghraib photos which portrayed, “staged and highly ritualized performance as if the actors were following a script” (Carby, 6). Carby went on to argue that the young soldiers resembled, “high-school kids first trip abroad, smiling self-consciously while announcing to the natives that they have arrived, assuring themselves of their superiority and their right to dominate while saying 'hi' to mom back home (Carby, 7). In saying this, perhaps the director Morris set up his documentary at first to depict the “postcard” space that Carby argues. However, the musical score, done by the unmistaken Danny Elfman, is bouncy and creepy, which helps to create an aesthetic of something perverse—something abject. In addition, the voiceover explicitly says, “I wouldn’t recommend a vacation to Iraq anytime soon.” This perverse poses a new question: Not only does this film begin with three beautiful “postcard” like images, but what adverse relation do these photos have with those of Iraqi prison detainees being tortured by U.S. soldiers? Perhaps the answer is in a point Nicholas Mizoeff brings up about audience.

In his essay, “Invisible Empire: Visual Culture, Embodied Spectacle, and Abu Ghraib,” Mirzoeff counters Carby’s argument in saying that although lynching photos were intended for circulation as it was a communal event, “By, contrast, the photographs of Abu Ghraib were intended only for the consumption of the Army and its associates. The public interpellation of the radicalized subject by the trophies of lynching has been replaced by the invisible visibility of a police culture that claims that there is nothing to see while circulating its pixilated documents of imperial hierarchy around the Internet” (Mirzoeff, 30). In saying this, Mirzoeff is commenting on the community that the images are circulating. He writes, “These outcomes show that the Abu Ghraib photographs were not simply documents in the everyday sense of the term. To be exact, they were not even photographs in the analog sense of chemical reaction to light but instead were, for the most part, digital renditions of light that were circulated as electronic data whose authenticity was nonetheless never questioned” (Mirzoeff, 24). The authenticity of the medium was never questioned because, as Mirzoeff writes, “Clearly in an age of Web-based speculation, visual evidence is still the most convincing and powerful form, despite the widespread understanding that such images can easily be manipulated.” (Mirzoeff, 24) In a sense this could be what Morris is ultimately investigating in his film, that is not-coincidentally tag-lined, “The scandal was the coverup”. What Morris could be illustrating by posing pastoral framed pictures with those of torture, is that both are just individual pictures of either: A) An Iraqi sunset or B) a hooded brown-bodied human, unless there is context. Context gives the photo medium a narrative. Context, being the location, time, and event of when the photo was taken. With context, for the “postcard” picture, we can perceive the sun setting over an Iraqi prison where a lot of ugly torture happens, and with context we can perceive violent torturous pictures of Iraqi prisoners, who was violated by U.S. personnel for the purposes of supremacy, humor, humiliation etc. The effect of placing these individually framed photos on the same timeline explores what Morris (and consequently Mirzoeff) are trying to say, which is: we must also be skeptical of the context when dealing with the medium of photography. How sure are we that these sunsets took place over the Iraqi prison of Abu Ghraib? How sure are we that these pictures were just a few “bad eggs” that abused the system?

In a digital society, where we as the “invisible visibility of a police culture that claims there is nothing to see while still circulating pixilated documents of imperial hierarchy around the Internet,” the context to which we perceive photo information can be very skewed. Take for example this video, from the television show “The Office”, where a Myspace picture of Kelly is used as blackmail by Creed in oder to get information. The context behind the picture is seemingly innocent, from Kelly’s Myspace, however in fear of loosing her job and credibility, because her office coworkers will not know the context of her picture, forces Kelly to give up office gossip. This cover-up, if you may, creates the scandal of Creed passing out gossip files. Not to mention, "The Office," like Standard Operating Procedure is filmed in a documentary style, with the video-camera acting like a objective perspective. However in "The Office" 'mock'umentary style fashion, the camera plays with this role, and becomes subjective. Perhaps, like the “incidents” at Abu Ghraib?

Work Cited:

Carby, Hazel. A Strange and Bitter Crop: The Spectacle of Torture

Mirzoeff, Nicholas. Invisible Empire: Visual Culture, Embodied Spectacle, and Abu Ghraib

Novak, B.J. "Blackmail." The Office. CBS.

Television (Found on HULU)