Violence, war, borders

The book teaches how X-rays document the effects of society’s shaping forces: In war, radiographs show the injuries and allow identifying the employed cluster bomb; they prove torture and child abuse. At countries’ borders, with X-rays, weapons, explosives and drugs are detected, which are hidden under the clothing, in the body, in the luggage, and in shipped goods; humans are visualized in cars, containers, and railway wagons. The images of these controls prove that terror and terror prevention and illegal immigration has become a prime political issue. X-ray imaging produces evidence. Reacting to terrorist attacks, these controls have been intensified: The catastrophe of Lockerbie induced luggage control; British citizen Richard Reid, who attempted to ignite explosives hidden in shoes, provoked fluoroscopy of shoes; 09.11.2003 and the terrorist attacks in London and Madrid lead to luggage control with computed tomography at airports and search of persons with transmission and backscatter imaging. The book makes apparent with its images that and how the perception of X-rays, of privacy and of the human body has changed since the discovery of the X-rays by C. Röntgen in 1895: The pioneers of radiology had radiation induced damages, which they accepted bravely and they were honored as heroes. In 1957, 12 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Miss Atomic Bomb posed in a bathing costume. Before 1900, Edison offered X-ray units for home use, with the allusion to make the thoughts and wishes of husband or neighbor visible by fluoroscopy. Today, advertising shows the „Transparent Traveler“ together with his transparent luggage, and advertising for mammography shows the breast of the woman.