In the weeks following the release of pictures taken by US soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison showing the torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners in April 2004, political cartoonists from around the world used the images as inspiration for political commentary.
As noted in the online edition of Egypt’s Al-Ahram newspaper, “The raw cruelty of American troops was captured in photograph, cartoon and print. Publications representing a wide spectrum of political opinion and ideological orientation graphically described the gruesome details of the abuses inflicted on the detainees by their American captors.”
The grainy pictures of a hooded prisoner standing on a box with wires attached to his private parts or the image of a US soldier dragging an Iraqi prisoner by a leash signified the symbolic tensions rendered by cartoonists that soon became emblematic of the scandal.
Sontag (2004) notes, “Photographs have an insuperable power to determine what people recall of events, and it now seems likely that the defining association of people everywhere with the rotten war that the Americans launched preemptively in Iraq last year will be photographs of the torture of Iraqi prisoners in the most infamous of Saddam Hussein's prisons, Abu Ghraib.”
Moreover, activist and artist Eric Millikin (2004) argues, “I think the power in the Abu Ghraib prison photos lies in the fact that those pictures totally destroyed the last remaining rational for the war… Those photos woke a lot of people up. That's sort of the testament to the power of visual arts, isn't it? When the stories were just trickling out, nobody really cared, but damn, when there are photos...”
Political cartoonists abstract visual messages signified in news images by tapping cultural meaning through satire, irony, sarcasm and parody. According to Newsweek magazine’s education program website, “Political cartoons are visual commentaries on the news.
Cartoonists use techniques like caricature, irony and symbolism to comment on recent events.” At the same time, cartoonists discover inspiration for their drawings from reading and viewing the news.
For Ozga (2005), “The content in political cartoons – no matter how complex the symbols may be – are always reductive, boiling an issue down to its essence, then boiling down that essence even further and making a strong point about it.”
For many editorial cartoonists, the actual images showing the abuse of prisoners symbolizes something greater—something contradicting the values and expectations of democracy.
When looking at the political cartoons rendered from the images of prisoner abuse in Iraq we are not only examining a moment in history, but also a series of dramatic anecdotes articulating widely held values, beliefs and concerns for humanity. For cartoonist Kirk Anderson, “A widely seen news image becomes a shorthand for larger issues, and you can communicate quicker with less reliance on words.”
In some sense, the political cartoon through a blend of humor and art attempts to capture our attention in order to push us toward reconciliation, resolution and an appreciation for the human condition. Anderson contends:
“Editorial cartooning communicates through visual images, and so it needs a shared visual language with the reader…. In the case of the abuse images, I was stunned & disgusted like everyone else. Because the photos elicit such a visceral reaction, they're perfect for adapting to a cartoon.”
Artist John Sherffius suggests, a “striking image combined with a clear, strong point of view make the most powerful editorial cartoons. Often, by altering those images slightly, editorial cartoonists can (hopefully) make meaningful political commentary. For instance, the image of a hooded prisoner at Abu Ghraib who stood upon a box with electrical wire attached to his arms, has been in many editorial cartoons.”
Further, editorial cartoonist Mark Streeter believes, “Powerful and widely-seen news photos or still-video captures, such as the ones from Abu Ghraib prison, give an editorial cartoonist a great starting point for his or her own visual commentary on the story. We often – some would say too often – rely on cliché, familiar cultural images and iconography as shorthand to grab the reader's attention and make our point quickly.”
Streeter continues:
Dramatic pictures such as the hooded prisoner in an almost Christ-like pose or the Leash Girl become instant icons. You know you're going to draw it. Half your job - what to actually draw today – is done.
Then comes the hard part – what are you going to say with it? Interestingly, these images that shock and haunt us today, will often quickly become the clichéd and trivialized images that we'll use all too often to illustrate some other issue tomorrow.
Not unlike photo editors singling out a particular photograph based on content, aesthetics and context, cartoonists aim for creating images with the highest levels of visual impact.
At the same time, Jeff Koterba comments that as events unfold the decision to illustrate the perspective of the day may give way to another reality.
Koterba suggests:
"The images of prisoner abuse have impacted my work in much the same any over-exposed image at the moment does. The advantage of having those images replayed 24-7 allows me to refer to those photos in my cartoons without having to explain what the issue is. Same was true of September 11....and to a lesser degree, any number of the images that we see on a regular basis. The problem comes when every other cartoonist is also working from the same image and thus, originality suffers--everything starts to look the same... Oh, here's the popular image of the day," says the cartoonist. "I must do something with that."
It's a double-edged sword, really.
Political cartoons do not merely point out major problems, but also serve to reinforce norms and values in society. Political cartoons represent a form of expression which mediate the reality of a word/image culture by “summing up” the action through immediacy and abstraction.
When looking at the political cartoons rendered from the images of prisoner abuse in Iraq we are not only examining a moment in history, but also a series of dramatic anecdotes articulating our common concerns and values. In some sense, the political cartoon through a blend of humor and art attempts to capture our attention in order to push us toward reconciliation, resolution and an appreciation for the human condition.
Ultimately, as controversial political cartoonist, Ted Rall, understatedly hints, “The purpose of a political cartoon is to stimulate discussion.”
Political cartoons, therefore, signify a visually abstracted reaction or response to the realism provided in news images—images that often initiate, frame, shape and foment debate in the public sphere.
References:
Scoffing at ‘sand-niggers’: The storm over images of Iraqi prisoners tortured by US occupying forces engulfed the Egyptian press. Gamal Krumah. Al-Ahram, May 2004.
What have we done? Susan Sontag. Guardian/UK, May 24, 2004.
Cutting up the dead: An interview with Eric Millikin. Joe Zabel. Webcomics Examiner, June 2004.
Extras!: The year in political cartoons. Newsweek Education Program, June 2005.
Political cartoonists, the endangered species. Matt Ozga. Recount, March 21, 2005.
Martin J. Medhurst and Michael A. DeSousa. "Political Cartoons as Rhetorical Form: A Taxonomy of Graphic Discourse." Communication Monographs, 48 (1981): 197-236.
Edwards, Janis and Carol Winkler. "Representative Forms and the Visual Ideograph: The Iwo Jima Image in Editorial Cartoons." Quarterly Journal of Speech, August 1997: 289-310.
Dennis Dunleavy. Interview with Kirk Anderson. Personal Correspondence, June 2004.
Dennis Dunleavy.
Interview with Mark Sherrifus. Personal Correspondence, June 2004.
Dennis Dunleavy.
Interview with Jeff Koterba. Personal Correspondence, June 2004.
Kenneth Burke.
A Grammar of Motives. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. 1969, page 46.
Pat Tillman.
Ted Rall. Rallblog. May 3, 2004.
