An introduction to the four principal visual themes in a photography book collection named: "The imposed war, defense vs aggression"

During Iran-Iraq's war, in which a great demand for depicting the scenes of war inevitably triggered, countless pictures by numerous photographers were captured. A period that is considered as one of the most prolific ages of Iran's photography and has led to the publication of more than 75 photography books up to now. Among them, "The imposed war, defense vs aggression" is one of the best photography book collections, which has been praised by many photographic scholars. The first six volumes were annually published during the war and its last three volumes were biennially published after nearly 17 years, all by governmental publishers. An archive that contains more than 1500 pictures of both amateur and well-known photographers such as: kave Golestan, Bahman jalali, Alfred yaghobzade etc, exposing a variety aspects of the lives of those who are involved in Iran-Iraq's war. Hence, considering different features of this collection, the main objective of this study is to enlighten the representative approach of publishers in the above mentioned books. With regard to this intention, based on the author's observation of all the pictures in this archive, four principal visual themes [destruction and displacement, death and decease, unison and integrity, battlefronts and spectacle of power] have been recognized, which every one of them is briefly described and analyzed in this paper. Accordingly, it's demonstrated initially that how each book begins by depicting those Iranian residential areas which were destroyed by means of bombardment or the people whose homes were wrecked. Subsequently, it continues by scenes of the dead bodies which belonged to children or other civilians or combatants. An outlook in which Iraqi forces are clearly represented as the ruthless party of the war and Iranians as the oppressed. Compellingly justifying Iranians military defense, the books are continued by some sights of Iranian demonstrations or bereavements in multitudinous, which are obviously representative of a national solidarity in support of the Islamic republic of Iran. A collective will which is deemed the foundation of Islamic republic's power and its many triumphs in battlefronts and is embodied in pictures of maneuvers and battlefields magnificently. Such a structure, from the author's perspective, despite some superficial differences between nine volumes of this collection, is predominance. Thus, it is drawn to conclusion that both selection and arrangement of the pictures in these books are based on a narrative, describing how cruelly Iraqi forces invaded Iran's territory and how Iran's Muslim nation defended their lands against them. moreover, noting documentary values of "The imposed war" collection, based on carried out comparisons between different volumes of it, the author has reached to conclusion that in the eighth volume, the above mention structure is organized far better than others; since, sloganeering and usage of symbolic indicators have been limited in this book and the burden of representation is totally borne by means of indexical signifiers. At the end, the writer should admit that this work is a summarized research and further studies need to be accomplished in order to address the knowledge gap in terms of this photographic collection.