1 DO WE NEED WAR PHOTOGRAPHY
If we need to understand the concept of war you must realize that death and destruction falls within that notion, but why do we need to produce images of people dying and suffering, do we have the right to photograph this? I believe that we the inhabitants of this world have the right to see images in direct response to the decisions government’s policies, whether or not we can make a difference.
We of our generation must take responsibility to record and preserve images so that future generations can try and understand the conflict. But I feel our generation, with the ability via television or the internet to have images of conflict viewed directly into the comfort of homes, must understand that the power of war photography.
2 YES
We must preserve history or mankind will forget the mistakes of the past. History can be documented using several types of media, verbal accounts, written and photography to name a few. Written accounts can take hours to fully document a historical event. Photography can preserving the save event in seconds and even after many years the photograph will still show the actual events whereas human memory can play tricks and over time this might erode all the finer detail. A picture is worth a thousand words.
A good example of photographs preserving history is ‘The Auschwitz Album’. Why, because it is the only surviving photographic evidence of the procedure leading murder of Jew’s arriving by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
This album is unique because it was produced by SS either by Ernst Hofmann or by Bernhard Walte, there appears to be no first hand written proof of the process of the selection of Hungarian Jews from Carpatho-Ruthenia in early 1944. Some of the ...
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...On checking his images he found two photographs (taken seconds apart) that have good elements in each. He decided to combine both to create an image of a British soldier telling Iraqi civilians to take cover while a tearful man carrying a child is walking towards the soldier.
The image was only discovered to have been manipulated after Colin Crawford, the Times' director of photography has been advised of a replication in the image. Crawford spoke to Walski who confirmed that he had digitally reworking the image, Crawford fired Wlalski for his deception.
Walski was later quote as saying "After a long and difficult day, I put my altered image ahead of the integrity of the newspaper and the integrity of my craft," he says. "These other photographers are there [in Iraq] risking their lives and I've just tarnished their reputation." (Johnston, May 2003)
Instead of telling readers what to think through words, readers can form their own point of view from a photo. A photograph that showed different interpretations was taken during WWII after the destruction of Iwo Jima in Japan of Americans soldiers raising an American flag in the ruins. Some viewers may perceive this act as patriotic, and others may have thought it was an act of terrorism and revenge. Either opinion could be argued and the photograph is the evidence. Since photographs can be unbiased, they can also hold truthful detail. For example, one photograph from the Vietnam war depicted a Vietnamese police officer shooting a Viet Cong in the streets. There are a lot of emotion in that photograph that words cannot describe all; which included the fear and hostility that was upheld during the time. Newspapers need to print more of these kinds of photographs to educate people the ugliness of war and death. Ephron pointed out, “throughout the Vietnam War, editors were reluctant to print atrocity pictures. . . That 's what that war was about.” War and its deaths are a part of history too, and history needs to be kept true and unbiased. As long as the photos are not altered nor used for propaganda, they can be
The vast literature on Nazism and the Holocaust treats in great depth the first three elements, the focus of this book, is t...
Images can manipulate many scenarios but it’s tactic used to show the realities of our world. Despite what we see, picture taken of the war and events occurring in the war doesn’t mean they aren’t real. We all live in a messy world and history is constantly repeating itself. Pictures are taken to spread awareness and empathy. It is a reason DeGhett argued that the Iraq brunt solider photograph taken by Kenneth Jarecke should have been posted in order for the public to get a sense that the war occurring at the moment is nothing like in the movies. Images are powerful and we must learn to always look closely and
Review of "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning" War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, written by the talented author Chris Hedges, gives us provoking thoughts that are somewhat painful to read, but at the same time are quite personal confessions. Chris Hedges, a talented journalist to say the least, brings nearly 15 years of being a foreign correspondent to this book and concludes how all of his world experiences tie together. Throughout his book, he unifies themes present in all the wars he experienced first hand. The most important themes I was able to draw from this book were, war skews reality, dominates culture, seduces society with its heroic attributes, distorts memory, and supports a cause, and allures us by a constant battle between death and love.
...her and the more modern case of Brian Walski demonstrates the importance of ethics in the mass media. With the public dependent on photographers for images that will give an accurate and true representation of the facts, in some cases even leading to such important decisions as giving relief aid, waging war, or determining votes in an election, it is vitally important that journalistic images be true and unaltered likenesses of real persons and events. Even apparently innocent misrepresentations, designed to create a better image or better prove a point, can have serious consequences for the photographer, the subjects of the image, and the public. It is a reminder of the importance of honesty in all professions.
The study of past events have been a common practice of mankind since the verbal telling of stories by our ancestors. William Cronon, in his article “Why the Past Matters,” asserts that the remembrance of the past “keeps us in place.” Our individual memories and experiences shape how we act in our daily lives. In addition to influencing us at an individual level, our collective history binds us together as a society. Without knowing where we have been or what we have experienced, it is nearly impossible to judge progress or know which courses of action to pursue. The goal of the historian is to analyze and explain past events, of which they rarely have firsthand memory of, and apply the gained knowledge to make connections with current and future events.
However, some believe the decision to not release Jarecke’s photo was less about protecting the readers than preserving the “dominant narrative” of a good, clean war. According to Stella Kramer, freelance photo editor for Life, “As far as Americans are concerned, nobody ever died” (DeGhett 81). Photographs tell stories and Jarecke’s told a story about the effects of combat, and allied air strikes. I believe that photos such as these should be published, if we are fighting in a war we should be able to face the effects of it. War is something that should not be taken lightly, therefore we need to face the devastating effects. These photographs serve as a reminder to those who may not understand the severity of war that people die fighting each day so that we can live in a world of
We use pictures to develop our own views on specific events that have gone on in the world past and present. In the photograph “Napalm Girl”, Associated press Nick Ut captured a story that only him and the people in the photo would know. The picture was captured of a group of children and soldiers getting away from an accidental napalm bomb that was dropped during the Vietnam War. I am going to establish the history of the event. The issue that this photograph was editors from different media companies and all built stories to show the public that the Vietnam war was not under control. All of the newscasting and journalist headlines that were created from the photos were different. This image has drawn many people in society to believing different
Most narratives out of the Holocaust from the Nazis point of view are stories of soldiers or citizens who were forced to partake in the mass killings of the Jewish citizens. Theses people claim to have had no choice and potentially feared for their own lives if they did not follow orders. Neighbors, The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, by Jan T. Gross, shows a different account of people through their free will and motivations to kill their fellow Jewish Neighbors. Through Gross’s research, he discovers a complex account of a mass murder of roughly 1,600 Jews living in the town of Jedwabne Poland in 1941. What is captivating about this particular event was these Jews were murdered by friends, coworkers, and neighbors who lived in the same town of Jedwabne. Gross attempts to explain what motivated these neighbors to murder their fellow citizens of Jedwabne and how it was possible for them to move on with their lives like it had never happened.
Schwartz, Donna. “Objective Representation: Photographs as Facts.” Picturing the Past: Media History & Photography. Ed. Bonnie Brennen, Hanno Hardt. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999. 158-181.
Post-mortem photography was, and still is, seen as a psychologically unhealthy practice, even when such photographs are historical documentations. Photographs taken during the liberation of concentration camps in the 1940's happen to be some of the most controversial, yet they are crucial to remembering the great tradgedy. Some opponents against post-mortem photography believe that atrocity photographs taken from the Holocaust should be hidden from view as they do nothing to honor the memory of the victims. The photographs by these opponents are seen only as morbid, without any historical value. But despite post-mortem photography's unpopularity in the 20th century—and still today—it was an essential tool in the documentation of the Holocaust and its victims. Therefore, post-mortem photography is not only vital to remembering and educating about the disaster, but also to remembering the individuals which memorial photography attempts to preserve.
Lois R. Robley remarks that “the horrors of war cannot be imagined by those of us who have not witnessed it. It is perhaps up to the poets, the writers, the movie directors, and the photojournalists to distill and recapture the images that remind us of the traumatic influence of war. Perhaps only then can we extinguish the need to be reminded and ready for war related PTSD.”
This book left me with a deeper sense of the horrors experienced by the Polish people, especially the Jews and the gypsies, at the hands of the Germans, while illustrating the combination of hope and incredible resilience that kept them going.
History is a story told over time. It is a way of recreating the past so it can be studied in the present and re-interpreted for future generations. Since humans are the sole beneficiaries of history, it is important for us to know what the purpose of history is and how historians include their own perspective concerning historical events. The purpose and perspective of history is vital in order for individuals to realise how it would be almost impossible for us to live out our lives effectively if we had no knowledge of the past. Also, in order to gain a sound knowledge of the past, we have to understand the political, social and cultural aspects of the times we are studying.
Photojournalism plays a critical role in the way we capture and understand the reality of a particular moment in time. As a way of documenting history, the ability to create meaning through images contributes to a transparent media through exacting the truth of a moment. By capturing the surreal world and presenting it in a narrative that is relatable to its audience, allows the image to create a fair and accurate representation of reality.