Book Review: Pierre Bourdieu, Picturing Algeria
In a poignant interview included in Picturing
Algeria, Pierre Bourdieu notes that “Yvette Delsaut wrote a text about me
in which she very rightly says that Algeria is what allowed me to accept myself.”
Indeed, in recent years, Bourdieu’s early fieldwork in Algeria has been
regarded as central to his conceptual apparatus. This edited volume features
Bourdieu’s photographs from 1957 to 1960, a period that witnessed some of the
most violent episodes of the Algerian war of independence. These images are
contextualized by excerpts from Bourdieu’s own writings, a foreword by Craig
Calhoun, and an interview with Bourdieu himself. The textual excerpts are
mostly taken from Le déracinement and Travail et travailleurs en
Algérie, two works that have never been translated into English. The
volume also includes two essays by the editors that
reflect on the relationship between Bourdieu’s later writings, his use of
photography, and his experiences in Algeria.