As a soldier in the French army, Pierre Bourdieu took thousands of
photographs documenting the abject conditions and suffering of the
Algerian people as they fought the Algerian War (1954-1962).
Sympathizing with those he was supposed to regard as
"enemies," Bourdieu instead became deeply and permanently
invested in their struggle to overthrow French rule and the
debilitations of poverty. This volume pairs 130 of Bourdieu's
photographs with key excerpts from his related writings, very few
of which have been translated into English. Many of these images,
luminous aesthetic objects in their own right, comment eloquently
on the accompanying words even as they are commented upon by them.
Bourdieu's work set the standard for all subsequent
ethnographic photography and critique. This volume also includes a
2001 interview with Bourdieu, in which he speaks to his experiences
in Algeria, its significance on his intellectual evolution, his
role in transforming photography into a means for social inquiry,
and the duty of the committed intellectual in an increasingly
troubled world.
Pierre Bourdieu (eigentlich Pierre-Félix Bourdieu; 1. August 1930 in Denguin, Pyrénées-Atlantiques; 23. Januar 2002 in Paris) war einer der bekanntesten Soziologen des 20. Jahrhunderts. Er studierte Philosophie in Paris an der École Normale Supérieure und arbeitete als Lehrer. Seit 1981 hatte Bourdieu einen Lehrstuhl am Collège de France. Im Jahre 1993 wurde er mit der "Médaille d'or du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique" (CNRS) ausgezeichnet. Pierre Bourdieus soziologische Forschungen, zumeist im Alltagsleben verwurzelt, waren vorwiegend empirisch orientiert. Er war bekannt als politisch interessierter und aktiver Intellektueller, der sich gegen die herrschende Elite und den Neoliberalismus wandte.
