On the Visual Culture of Policing Fakes in India: Spurious Drug Bust Photojournalism

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Spurious drug bust photojournalism in India is dominated by a few types of image, repeated so regularly as to constitute its own visual trope. Given that hard evidence for fake drugs is notoriously hard to find, I ask: how does spurious drug bust photojournalism perform the truth of the fake? Using the interpretive tools of visual culture to explore the charge these images come to hold, I argue that spurious drug bust photojournalism invites its reader to see two rare things: (1) an unambiguous heroics of the Indian police, and (2) a reality of fake pharmaceuticals in India.
Original languageEnglish
JournalThe Cambridge Journal of Anthropology
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 29 Sept 2024

Keywords

  • anti-counterfeit policing
  • fake drugs
  • fake-talk
  • India
  • visual culture

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