Christoph Bangert 'War Porn'

I thought that before my departure to Poland, I could write a few words about a book that I recently managed to get my hands on. 'War Porn' by Christoph Bangert is a very risky, yet very interesting concept. It is nothing more than a social experiment, which challenges the viewer by questioning what would happen if the most brutal images from various conflicts around the globe were to be put together into a one book and without any suppression of a censorship.

Christoph Bangert is a known German war photographer. Building on his personal experience he decided to publish 'War Porn'. Subjected to some form of censorship (often -self) from the early age, starting with his Nazi grandfather who would hide the real facts of the Second World War, he decided to come up with a project which would abolish any type of a publishing restriction.

'War Porn' is a small book, that easily fits into the palm of your hand. Its raw and basic finish
introduces the viewer into its raw and basic content. Nothing is altered, edited, hidden away for any sort of purpose. The book is graphic, shocking, certainly not all would feel comfortable even holding it. In a way we are faced with our biggest fears, images that we often try to avoid or pretend their lack of existence.

I suppose the biggest risk of such experiment is that we may just get used to such graphic images and perhaps fall into the heartless attitude where we simply generalise all violence and forget how to correctly react to such brutality. I'd like to hope that a normally behaved, good human being cannot be altered by anything even the great amount of uncensored images or footage. A fully shaped and formed adult should be able to face the reality in all forms and seeing such images should only provoke some positive proactive reactions. Anyway, just to be on the safe side, my copy lives under a glass cloche, so all viewings are fully informed.