Seeing Others through Photobooks: Monsanto®, Photography and Evidence
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/arbor.2023.808001Keywords:
Monsanto®, Mathieu Asselin, photobook, photography, photojournalismAbstract
This article analyses the photobook Monsanto®: A Photographic Investigation by documentary photographer Mathieu Asselin. First, photobooks are addressed from a semiotic perspective, specifically using Roman Jakobson’s functions of language. Then, in this case, the difference between photobooks and photojournalism is understood partly as a matter of time, as photobooks usually report on events that are not current. Next, Monsanto® is considered in relation to the tradition of photobooks on warfare, especially Agent Orange: “Collateral Damage” in Viet Nam by Philip Jones Griffiths and War against War! by Ernst Friedrich. Asselin relates victims of war to victims of corporate capitalism, overcoming the colonial difference between Western soldiers and Eastern victims, and delving deeply into the causes of warlike capitalism. Monsanto® also reflects decisions on the limits of photography to show the world and, therefore, on visibility. Unlike Friedrich, Asselin assumes that photography does not have to visually feature everything mentioned in the book. What is more, the captions provide essential information and some photographs are only meant to show what Asselin witnessed. Finally, Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s considerations about evidence are used to understand how photography is meant to be evidence of facts, which could lead pictures to precede and create the event they report.
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