The Justifiable Act of Publishing a Picture Pictures cannot be reenacted; therefore, this is why photographs are noteworthy. This statement rings valid; many people, including Nora Ephron, agree with it. Moreover, Ephron writes a final essay called “The Boston Photographs”, and she references an occurrence where a woman deceased. The photographs of her and her child falling are visible in news articles. People believe that these pictures were too private. Nevertheless, Ephron believes that newspapers should not censor obscenities from the public because they represent certain issues. A comparable theme of death appears in a recent photograph of the blood-spattered death of many Syrian inhabitants by the air strikes of the Syrian government. …show more content…
Furthermore, the picture shows dozens of bodies lying down on the floor, one by one in a straight line. There is blood everywhere, which adds to the darkness that has diffused through Syria. People encircle the bodies and start crying. Similarly, Ephron describes the Boston photos clearly as she states: “Smoke was pouring from the building behind them. A rescue ladder was approaching, just a few feet away, and the fireman had one arm around the woman and one arm reaching out toward the ladder” (728). Ephron uses expressive sentences to lure readers into this unfortunate incident. This shows that photographs are merely an ocular lens for the event; the photo is the closest tool to imaginatively go back in time and see the gruesome Syrian deaths. As Ephron says, “That they disturb readers is exactly as it should be: that’s why photojournalism is often more powerful than written journalism” (733). The power of photography is sensational as it captures the smallest of details that writers could not have possibly captured in their writing. For all these reasons, publishing of the picture of the dead bodies of the Syrians is
While Ephron argued that photos of death and war should be published just because it happened, but those photos do have some purpose. They are to preserve history, accurately record events, and be able to convey strong messages to readers. Photojournalism should be able to open minds of readers because the stories do not necessarily have to be told in a picture. Stories of war and death must be respected and honored, so these kinds of stories should not be unmentioned nor censored. They should be remembered. Also, photojournalism should not be abused in any sort to keep the integrity of the stories being captured. Ephron had said, “photojournalism is often more powerful than written journalism,” because it can cause a quicker response. Photojournalism is not only a piece of news, but it is also art. Works of art have the right to be expressed and shown to the
By reading the title of the story, “Bodies” I was expecting a horrific, disgusted war story with disturbing mental pictures of mutilated and discompose bodies. However, deep inside me I was craving for scene where I could place myself and experience a grips of what soldier are expose to. In addition, I was expecting to feel sad and goosebumps.
In Ishmael Beah’s memoir A Long Way Gone, Beah’s imagery represents the struggle and misery of the Sierra Leone people are going through with the rebels invading. To begin, after Beah spends two days straight walking he arrives at a village that has already been condemned by the rebels. In the village Beah sees dead bodies everywhere, which fills his mind with the gruesome ways of death the men and woman suffered through: “I had seen heads cut off by machetes; smashed by cement bricks, and rivers filled with so much blood that the water ceased flowing… my body twitched with fear”(49). During this event Beah could not get these gruesome images out of his mind. Beah tries closing his eyes trying to hide away his vision to help the thoughts leave.
I glance amusedly at the photo placed before me. The bright and smiling faces of my family stare back me, their expressions depicting complete happiness. My mind drifted back to the events of the day that the photo was taken. It was Memorial Day and so, in the spirit of tradition my large extended family had gathered at the grave of my great grandparents. The day was hot and I had begged my mother to let me join my friends at the pool. However, my mother had refused. Inconsolable, I spent most of the day moping about sulkily. The time came for a group picture and so my grandmother arranged us all just so and then turned to me saying, "You'd better smile Emma or you'll look back at this and never forgive yourself." Eager to please and knowing she would never let it go if I didn't, I plastered on a dazzling smile. One might say a picture is worth a thousand words. However, who is to say they are the accurate or right words? During the 1930s, photographers were hired by the FSA to photograph the events of the Great Depression. These photographers used their images, posed or accurate, to sway public opinion concerning the era. Their work displayed an attempt to fulfill the need to document what was taking place and the desire to influence what needed to be done.
Originally published in 1975, Nora Ephron’s essay “The Boston Photographs” is both still relevant and controversial almost forty years later. It deals with the series of three photographs that were published in newspapers across the country. The most important one shows a mother and child falling off a collapsed fire escape. Both have their limbs outstretched. If both had survived, maybe the reaction would have been different. The child survived by landing miraculously on the mother, but the mother ended up dying. The question on everyone’s mind was why the photographer, Stanley Forman, decided to take the photographs instead of trying to help the falling mother and child.
Despite the similarities in the two texts presented by the authors and photographers, their work is presented in two various ways. Agee and Evans project was done after living with three tenant families and Evans photographs are completely separate from Agees text. There are not any captions or names and they do not tell us where the photos are taken or who the people in the pictures are. Lange and Taylor’s project on the other hand is written in a way that helps us read the photographs and it is easier to see the connections between the text and pictures. The captions underneath the photos are based on words formulated by the people in the picture. However, the photos that do not have any people in them still have captions, but in this case we can assume that someone has told the photographer or author what to write for each photo. By this method the true meaning of how the turmoil during this period affected the people in question is more precisely illustrated because it includes the words uttered by the people thems...
Photographs capture the essence of a moment because the truth shown in an image cannot be questioned. In her novel, The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold uses the language of rhetoric to liberate Abigail from the façade of being a mother and spouse in a picture taken by her daughter, Susie. On the morning of her eleventh birthday, Susie, awake before the rest of the family, discovers her unwrapped birthday present, an instamatic camera, and finds her mother alone in the backyard. The significance of this scene is that it starts the author’s challenge of the false utopia of suburbia in the novel, particularly, the role of women in it.
An image has the explicit power of telling a story without saying any words, that’s the power behind a photo. A photo tends to comes with many sides to a story, it has the ability to manipulate and tell something differently. There is a tendency in America, where explicit photos of war or anything gruesome occurring in the world are censored for the public view. This censorship hides the reality of our world. In “The War Photo No One Would Publish” Torie DeGhett centers her argument on censorship, detailing the account of graphic Gulf War photo the American press refused to publish. (73) DeGhett argues that the American public shouldn’t be restrained from viewing graphic content of the war occurring around the world. She believes that incomplete
...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.
Taking into consideration Roger Ballen’s opinion, that when the viewers take a look at a photograph they ought to experience that instant existed in time; that it is genuine. (Amison 2014: http://www.gommamag.com/v6/?p=1922) One can derive that regardless of the pain expressed in the image that it belongs to a life of the subject in the photograph - it is merely a moment within their life and even though it is crammed with narrative, it is only one fragment of the subject’s life. It’s like something occurred or is about to, yet in the particular instance, nothing is taking place; it is captured eter...
After meticulously reading the article “ A Life Revealed” by the National Geographic Magazine, I have developed numerous thoughts over what it truly means to have a story. The article declares the abilities of one photographer who struggled to rediscover one of the subjects he previously photographed. Her name was Sharbat Gula, the woman whose photograph drastically changed the others’ opinions over refugees in the Middle East. With captivating sea green eyes and a flat expression, she stared into the souls of the people, revealing all the hardships she experienced, through simply an expression. Back in 1985, this picture inspired thousands to aid the refugees. But if this enthralling woman truly affected my view of the refugees, should I not know her name?
Photography may be seen as a helpful tool in recording history, history itself cannot be based on images. Susan Sontag author of “ Regarding the Pain of Others”, states:
During the pre-Civil War era, the technology of photography was rare or still in development. All renderings of war were either in paintings or in literature. Since artists were the only people capable of creating images of war at the time, they often put their imaginations or added extra details to their paintings. By adding their personal touches to these pieces of art, they would often depict bravery, patriotism, and heroism. “Paintings, lithographs, woodcuts, and statues displayed a glorious saga of thrilling American heroism from the Revolution to the Mexican War” (Franklin 811). The 1851 painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware gave the sense of nationalism and pride. Photography then came along. Many newly found photographers were looking for a profit and followed the Union armies into battle (Franklin 811). Since cameras at the time took a long time to snap a shot, photographers could not take picture of action or battle without them being too blurry. So, they took pictures of the dead. It was these gruesome pictures that were the first to be shown to the public. The worst pictures of all were the ones taken at Gettysburg and Antietam. The bodies in some of these pictures were already two days deco...
Photographs are used to document history, however selected images are chosen to do so. Often times these images graphically show the cruelty of mankind. In her book, Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag asks, "What does it mean to protest suffering, as distinct from acknowledging it?" To acknowledge suffering is just to capture it, to point it out and show somebody else that it exists. In order to protest suffering, there has to be some sort of moral decision that what is shown in the photograph is wrong, and a want from the viewer to change that.
There are many horrific parts of war that are unforgettable when seen in real life. First, Hemingway uses imagery to portray the theme by stating, "I tried to move, but could not move. I heard the machine-guns and rifles firing across the river and all along the river. There was a great splashing and I saw the start shells go up and burst and float whitely and rockets going up and heard the bombs..." (Hemingway 55). The author shows how a soldier gets stuck in the middle of a scary war situation because he did not c a re enough to pay attention to the events taking place outside of the hide out by using imagery. He visually gives the reader an idea of the theme he is portraying. To add to this idea, Hemingway expresses the theme by stating the condition of the soldier after the explosion. He says, "It was Passini and when I touched him he screamed. His legs were toward me and I saw in the dark and the light that they were both smashed above the knee. One leg was gone and the other was held by tendons and part of the trouser and the stump twitched as jerked as though it were connected," (Hemingway 55). In this situation, he shows the reader how the soldier suffers major physical injuries because he was naive about the events taking place in the war zone. They should pay attention to their surroundings. Furthermore, Hemingway portrays his theme using imagery in order to give an idea of the