Power Symbols
Mon, 08/02/2010 - 12:18 — grace.norman@gm...
description:
<p>There are many ways to communicate power. The king understood this very well. He created a visual brand and conveyed his authority efficiently in the era of photography and global media.</p>
Era:
Afghanistan in the World
Theme:
Identity & Perception
Traces & Narratives
Tradition & Modernization
Year:
1923
BCE/CE:
CE
Date Period:
CE
More Information:
<p>"Black Wolf, Cheyenne." Digital image. First People of America and Canada. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.firstpeople.us/.</p>
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<div class="hang"><i>Image1</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang">ISAF, Cpl. Zachary Nola, and Regimental Combat Team-7, 1st Marine Division Public Affairs. "Http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4085542826/." Digital image. Isafmedia's Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4085542826/.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>KES-225-1-H-136-1</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>KES-693-A-62</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>KES-765-A-134</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>KES-769-A-138</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>KES-815-A-184</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>KES-849-A-218</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>KES-934-A-303_1</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>KES-938-A-307_1</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>KES-938-A-307_1</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>KES-939-A-308</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>KES-940-A-309_1</i>. Khalilullah Enayat Seraj Collection, Williams Afghan Media Project, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.</div>
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<div class="hang">"Obama's Blackberry." Digital image. The Review Crew. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.thereviewcrew.com/news/obama-to-get-his-ultra-super-bionic-blackberry/.</div>
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<div class="hang"><i>Rolls Royce</i>. RollsRoycemotors.com. Accessed September 4, 2010.</div>
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<div class="hang">Sims, Brandi. "Crucifix." Digital image. House of Sims' Flickr Photostream. Accessed September 4, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/houseofsims/2350636791/. Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en</div>
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<p>Producer: Kate Harding</p>
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Video Transcript:
<p>Power is visual. And the visual is power.</p>
<p>There are many ways to communicate power. And in the 1920s, King Amanullah understood that very well. He knew that if he could create a visual brand, then he could convey his authority more efficiently. Like governments and corporations today, he used symbols to consolidate his ideals and his power.</p>
<p>And in the era of photography, these symbols could be mediated at new speed.</p>
<p>For Amanullah, the visual signs of technology and clothing communicated so much more than speeches ever could. These symbols were used strategically to convey to his people that he was building a new kind of government for a new Afghanistan.</p>
<p>Even in a single meeting, Amanullah effectively communicated his new brand through this strategic use of symbols. This shot is of King Amanullah meeting with tribal delegates.</p>
<p>It’s interesting. In comparison with earlier shots that we have of his father and grandfather, also meeting with tribal delegates, one difference is that he is on the same level as the tribal delegates. If we look at some other shots, and again you have to be careful of drawing conclusions from a single photograph. But in other shots we have, we see the king up, elevated above his subjects. And Amanullah wanted to create a more of a citizenry as opposed to a king/subject relation, it was more of the king and his people, but on a more equal level. And I think it’s important in this photograph that we see him talking to people at the same eye level.</p>
<p>At the same time, we also see that he has got some of the accoutrements of power around him. And very modern accoutrements. If you look at the telephone that’s at his right hand, this is a relatively new invention in Afghanistan, and probably only connected to very few places within Kabul. It certainly didn’t go outside of Kabul. But it allowed him to communicate with other people in his court.</p>
<p>One imagines that it was more a symbol than it was a real instrument of communication. When push came to shove, I’m sure Amanullah communicated through couriers and through the traditional means. There was even one man in his court who was known as the Bubabark, who was the fastest runner that the king had been able to find, and he was the personal messenger of the king. So Bubabark means the father of electricity. But Amanullah, I think in this case, has that telephone by his side as a way of symbolizing his modernity and his association with what must have seen to those tribesmen, if they even knew what it was at all, it would have seemed like a symbol of the power of the king, not through guns, not through force or violence, but rather through the instruments of technology and modernity.</p>
