Playing Soldiers: Posing Militarism in the Domestic Sphere

Focusing on family photo-portraits of Israeli soldiers, this lecture offered an insight into the politics of family photography in the context of political tension and militarism (the ongoing Arab-Israel conflict).

Expounding how family photographs of Israeli soldiers assist in perpetuating and solidifying Israeli social norms, positions, standards and positive attitudes towards the Israeli army, I also explored how in the context of the Israeli State's ideolgy, the very nature of the genre of portraiture, and particularly of posing for a photographic portrait, appears to subvert the coherency of such photographs' alleged message.