--- issue: 06 date: 2022-01-01 categories: dossier open-access: layout: page lang: en ref: 06-07 author: "Linda Garcia d’Ornano" title: "“The Target is There!” " subtitle: "The Use of Aerial Photography During the Indochina War" pages: "58-67" bio: "Linda Garcia d’Ornano is a doctoral student in the history of photography at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Since September 2019, under the supervision of Michel Poivert, she has been working on a dissertation on the photographic practice of French military reporters during the Indochina War. Her fields of research are photojournalism, photographic archives and vernacular photography. She is also in charge of a research project supported by the Collège international de photographie and the HiCSA laboratory of the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, which aims at registering photographic know-how in the national inventory of intangible cultural heritage." keywords: "propaganda, war photography, illustrated press, photojournalism, aerial view, vertical view, colonialism" abstract: "Through two army publications – the illustrated monthly *Indochine Sud-Est Asiatique* and the morale-building book *Ciel de guerre en Indochine* – in this article, d’Ornano analyses the various media uses of aerial views that French military reporters produced during the Indochina War (1946-1954). Part of a broader communication strategy that the Press Information Service orchestrated, these publications helped glorify the combatants of the French Expeditionary Corps while playing down the dangers the native population faced. They also created an image of an “ideal” territory, void of enemies and inhabited solely by allies of the French cause. However, if they initially attest to the colonial power’s desire for control and domination, they end up betraying its failure when defeat was ensured following the Diên Biên Phu battle in May 1954." caption: "Photographies tirées de Robert Aeschelmann, « Chasseurs d’Indochine, chasseurs de France », Indochine Sud-Est asiatique, no 10, septembre 1952, pp. 50-51." --