Caught in the Flash: Visual Subjects of American Imperialism at the Battle of Caloocan

• Main Author: Spaeth, Elizabeth
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2018
• Subjects: Philippine American War; Battle of Caloocan; American Empire; Visual Representations of Violence; Photojournalism
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/paha/vol8/iss2/2; https://archium.ateneo.edu/context/paha/article/1278/viewcontent/PAHA_208.2_202_20Article_20__20Spaeth.pdf
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

This paper focuses on the revolutionary use of photojournalism in Leslie’s Weekly and Harper’s Weekly from 1899 to 1901 during the Philippine-American War, in particular at the Battle of Caloocan. I discuss the context of visual journalism and social realism from the Civil War to the 1890s as well as the shift from caricature illustrations to realism in photography and articles. I trace the “commodity racism” involved in American consumerism during the Philippine-American War that paralleled the voyeuristic consumption of the Filipino dead and the development of a gendered and classed American nationalism. As American culture shifted more towards a focus on the individual and personhood in amateur photography and social realism, Filipino bodies were nevertheless treated as objects and trophies of war and caricatured as savages in visual representations.