Noorderlicht

Biography

Unseen Terror: The Bomb, other Bogeymen, and a Culture of Fear (2008)

Our lives, Robert Hirsch says, are dominated by competing groups of fear-merchants, each with their own interests that are promoted by capitalising on our collective anxiety neurosis. In Unseen Terror Hirsch calls us to account about these fears. In an arrangement that does not yield the individual images to the eye just like that, Hirsch dishes up a four-course menu of terrorists, weapons of mass destruction, atomic tests and other icons of anxiety. Look closely, he says, because an aware citizen develops resistance and can cultivate a culture of alternative options.

Robert Hirsch (United States, 1949) is an artist, curator, teacher, historian and author of three books on photographic techniques and of the social-historical photo book Seizing the Light: A History of Photography. He is director of Light Research, an advice bureau that focuses on the world of photo art and art education.