Tender violence

"In Tender Violence, Wexler presents an incisive analysis of how the first cohort of American female photojournalists contributed to a "domestic vision" that helped sustain the imperialism and racism of turn-of-the-century America. These photographers, white and middle class, constructed images of war disguised as domestic peace through a mechanism Wexler calls the "averted eye," which had its origins in the private domain of family photography.". "In a groundbreaking approach to the study of photography, Wexler raises up these images as "texts" to be analyzed alongside other texts of the period for what they say about the discourses of power. As images viewed in public venues, these photographs contributed to the way late-nineteenth-century Americans imagined and understood the world and their place in it. Despite wide variations in subject matter, Wexler argues, they helped advance a notion of a domestic sphere that differentiated "civilized" Americans from a variety of people considered not adequately cultured."--BOOK JACKET.