Ron Haviv’s Blood and Honey reached international recognition as the collection of images that were the eyes into the Balkan conflicts. His coverage of the events were unrivaled by any other photojournalists of the area at the time. Over the years, Haviv’s work in the Balkans has remained part of photojournalistic discourse, especially when the conversation is geared towards aesthetics in photojournalism as well as the legacy and impact of the conflict and the images produced from them.
When searching the internet for conversations regarding Haviv’s work, it usually contains his most famous images from Blood and Honey, namely Arkan’s portrait, the Tiger paramilitary soldier kicking a dead Muslim woman, and the prisoners of the Bosnian concentration camps. A notable website was http://www.balkaninsight.com/ which contained an article about members of Arkan’s “Tigers” that escaped justice by concealing their identities after Arkan’s indictment. In speaking about the war crimes committed by the Tigers, many of the Blood and Honey images were present, a brief portion of the article spoke about how Haviv was invited by Arkan to photograph him and his troops. I found many websites that contained Haviv’s images as ancillary to the topics of the article, another example was on http://www.crimesofwar.org/a-z-guide/paramilitaries/ that used Haviv’s image of the Tiger paramilitary kicking a dead Muslim woman as evidence in a historical layout of paramilitary groups. My overall impression of seeing Haviv’s images online is that there are only so few outlets that talk about the images themselves, such as Vice where Haviv has an informative interview about his work in former Yugoslavia (http://www.vice.com/read/photos-of-the-bosnia-war). An interesting quote from the interview was when Haviv was asked about the current situation in the reigion, stating “I had hope that the country would be moving forward at a faster pace. I find that the current situation is an insult to all those affected by the war.” Many sites are using Haviv’s images as proof and practical display to explaining the conflict and the atrocities committed during it, the legacy and use of his images are most times in efforts to further educate about the conflicts themselves and express a desire to resolve them.
In further studying the legacy of Haviv’s image and those from Blood and Honey, I would especially value the input of those involved in the conflict firsthand. I would want to see how the images affected the civilian population besides helping indict Arkan for war crimes, as I’d imagine their experience in seeing the images would be more personal and specifically relevant to the conflict rather than those who see it from a distance (speaking to the UN Security officers who prosecuted Arkan with the photographs would also be valuable). I would also want the opinions of historical photography aesthetics experts and researchers to see how Haviv’s images and others involved in the former Yugoslavian conflict pair up with coverages of other wars and what context the images serve in terms of shaping the public’s perception of it.
Sources:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/capturing-a-war-crime/article25016202/
https://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/bosnia/Bosn005-03.htm
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/arkan-s-paramilitaries-tigers-who-escaped-justice
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