Sean Snyder

For more than 120 years, Carl Zeiss photographic lenses have been considered among the best in the world, even for use in outer space. The landing on the moon in 1969, for instance, was documented with a Hasselblad camera and a Carl Zeiss lens. [1] This rich history of technological advances for the purpose of improving visibility and thereby gaining ever more (visual) information is at the center of Sean Snyder’s “Optics”. “Compression. Propaganda” (2007). Consisting of photographs, text panels, documents, and videos, this work takes as its point of departure an undated, black-and-white photograph that Snyder chose from the Carl Zeiss archives. It shows a close-up of a broken piece of raw optical glass, the corner of which pins down a printed piece of paper. As Snyder notes, “the image represents essentially nothing,” and yet it could be seen to be “an imagined composite of the visual history of more than a century.” [2]
Within the context of the conflicts in Afghanistan, Snyder proceeds to analyze the visual technologies applied, the resulting images, and hidden agendas. Sourcing his images from the official website of the U.S. Department of Defense and random posts by As-Sahab, Al Qaeda’s media production company, Snyder opposes two political extremes and their carefully considered media and visual information strategies. In translated excerpts from an alleged Al Qaeda training manual found by Manchester police in 2000, which are included in Snyder’s work, the importance that Al Qaeda attributes to the media’s role and to the use of photography in particular becomes clear.
How much we can actually see in an (digital) image comes down to the number of pixels, as Snyder points out; the higher the ratio of pixels, the more detail. The same is true for videos: the higher the resolution, the clearer the picture. Both the U.S. Department of Defense and Al Qaeda make calculated use of high- and low-quality pictures – and thereby high and low visibility – while feigning transparency or authenticity. In other words, both subtly instill messages through the apparently neutral means of technical applications. One example is a Department of Defense image with the following caption: “U.S. special forces troops ride horseback as they work with members of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom.” The closer one tries to zoom in, however, the less becomes visible. Al Qaeda’s videos are another example: despite the use of modern cameras, they have the look of a bad-quality production, implying a level of authenticity that a slick production might not have. 
Having discovered the type of camera with integrated Zeiss lens that is used in one of Al Qaeda’s propaganda videos, Snyder completely dismantles such a camera in a pragmatic attempt at “defusing” the hardware; he documents this act in the one-minute video “Sony DCR-PC120E (Disassembled)” (2007). Snyder comes to the conclusion that it does not “matter in whose hands it is placed, the camera is not only a physical device, but also a metaphysical ‘apparatus.’”

[1] For a summary, see the web pages “Journeys Through Space and Time,” available online at: http://www.zeiss.com/C12567A8003B8B6F/ContainerTitel/120Years/$File/interviews.html (accessed 05/09/2012).
[2] Sean Snyder, Optics. Compression. Propaganda, in: Sean Snyder and Silvia Sgualdini (eds.), Optics. Compression. Propaganda, exhib. cat., Lisson Gallery, London, Verlag der Buchhandlung König, Cologne, 2007, n.p.