Underexposed

More about the book

The victor's account of history may be the one that is recorded, but photojournalism still has the power to undermine the official version. Such is the corrective testimony of this startling collection of banned, suppressed or conveniently forgotten news images depicting moments from the last century where the propaganda needs of politicians, despots and stars clashed with sometimes awkward, sometimes horrifying truths. Incorporating images and text from the Index On Censorship and the Hulton Getty Picture Collection, the images represent a reality check on alleged events from the last hundred years, documenting a power struggle with rival cultural forces of media and information. Reclaimed from the trash cans of the Second World War, Hitler's preening speech rehearsals come back to argue with his self-made myth. From the cruelty of Stalin's Russia to fundamentalist chaos in Iran, via disgruntled starlets, ecological destruction and US nuclear tests, Underexposed gathers some of the most ideologically dangerous photographs ever taken and releases them to haunt the increasingly manipulated, retouched present. With an incisive forward by Colin Jacobson, the book is a seminal work for all those curious about what lies beneath the last century's layers of spin.