The photographs of torture at Abu Ghraib prison aroused world-wide condemnation – or did they? Opinion polls showed that most citizens of the US were unmoved by the images. And in the two countries that promoted the war in Iraq and instigated torture against detainees, George Bush and Tony Blair were returned to office only months after the pictures’ release. One reason for this relative lack of public opprobrium may be the nature of the Abu Ghraib pictures themselves, and what Stephen F. Eisenman terms ‘the Abu Ghraib effect’. By showing prisoners engaging in sexual acts, the author asserts, the photos make the men look like enthusiastic participants in their own interrogation and torture. Further, these scenes repeat an ancient stereotype: the ‘pathos formula’, in which victims of war are shown welcoming their own punishment. In this subtle, highly original analysis, Eisenman shows the pathos formula at work in the Abu Ghraib photos, and describes its long history, exploring the motif's appearance in imperial Greek and Roman Art, in the sculpture and painting of Michelangelo, and in Baroque paintings of saints and martyrs. The author also describes the equally long history of artistic protest against the formula: William Hogarth, Francisco Goya and others in the 18th and 19th centuries, and Pablo Picasso, Ben Shahn and Leon Golub in the 20th have all attacked its use.

The Abu Ghraib Effect reveals how the pathos formula has dulled public responses to images of torture, and also urges a more effective use of political images in the fight against the the so-called ‘war on terror’. Highly sophisticated, yet written in an accessible style, the book will appeal to readers interested in photography, art and current affairs, as well as political activists, art critics and historians.