La (re)presentación de la violencia a través de la fotografía. Mostrar, ocultar, retener, reconducir y utilizar la imagen de la mujer durante la Guerra Civil Española en Madrid (1936-1939)

Images are powerful tools of communication that must be properly used so that they do not become self-defeating to those who resort them, especially by Countries during difficult periods of their History. During the wars of the late Nineteenth Century, visual propaganda obtained a quite interesting field of experimentation since the “now I show, now I don’t” game became one more resource in the conflict. In order to develop some ideas about the use and abuse of violent images emitted during a war, we will focus on a selection of photographs taken in the City of Madrid during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). That war turned visual control into a weapon not only to win in the front line but also in the rear using it as political propaganda. To narrow down our study, the (re)presentation of the prototype of the traditional woman shown as an active subject or as a victim of the enemies will be analyzed. Before that, and to make our point, we will reflect on the capacity of the photograph as a recovery document of the memory or, rather, as the memory itself of the events and the possibilities that arose during the uprising of July 1936