Picturing Algeria
Lee Lawrence
Pierre Bourdieu, author; Franz Schultheis and Christine Frisinghelli, eds.
2012, Columbia UP, $75 hb, $30 pb
Anyone interested in one of the most influential social scientists of our day, Algeria, colonialism or documentary photography will benefit from Picturing Algeria, first published in French in 2003. The book revolves around some 150 photographs that Bourdieu took in Algeria in the late 1950s. Thematic sections deal with the effects of war and societal crises, Bourdieu's notions of "Habitus and Habitat," gender and poverty. In each, excerpts from Bourdieu's writings speak to rather than about the accompanying photographs. These sections are bookended by a 2001 interview with Bourdieu, a sequence of imagery and an essay by Frisinghelli. The effect is a cumulative exploration of Bourdieu's approach to research, his insights into the outcomes of dislocation and disruption, and his views on the role he plays as the man behind the camera.
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