A Photographer's Focus
On March 20, 1972 at 11:45 a.m. an anonymous phone call was made to police headquarters in Belfast, Northern Ireland warning of a bomb in crowded Church Street (Fisk 2). At 11:52 a.m. a second emergency call reached police headquarters confirming the threat of a bomb (Fisk 2). The police made efforts to evacuate the street as quickly as possible. Then, at 11:55 a.m. headquarters received a third emergency call warning of a bomb, but this time the caller gave the location of the bomb to be in the adjoining Donegall Street (Fisk 2). Three minutes later a 100-pound gelignite bomb exploded in Donegall Street killing six people and wounding 147 others (Fisk 1). The bombing was a terrorist act by the Irish Republican Army (IRA), whose mission is to drive the British out of Northern Ireland.
It was in the ensuing minutes of the explosion that Derek Brind of the Press Association probably arrived at the gruesome scene: nearly a hundred young girls “lay on the street or in the shattered doorways screaming with pain and shock” (Fisk 1). As he approached the site, he spotted a British paratrooper holding “a young Irish girl in his arms to comfort her” (Dewar 62) and snapped this photo:
What makes this, or any photograph, so unique is that the viewer actually sees what the photographer saw when he or she took the picture; we too, see the paratrooper clutching the wounded girl in his arms. What we don’t see, however, is what takes place around the picture. The photographer chooses where we look and in doing so, decides what deserves attention and what can be left out. This selection process is entirely subjective, and as such, it is a reflection of the photographer's perspective—not just literally, but figurat...
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... we too, begin to become aware of the cruel nature of mankind. This is what Derek Brind saw in the violence in Northern Ireland and this is what he tried to convey through this image. Hence, what may appear to be a photo about how loving and caring fellow man can be, is really a criticism of the inhumanity of man. This is the photographer's message as reflected through his choice of focus in the image.
Works Cited:
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Dewar, Michael, Colonel. The British Army in Northern Ireland. London: Arms and Armour Press, 1996. 57-79.
Fisk, Robert. “Six killed, 147 injured by bomb after misleading calls.” The London
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O’Neill, William L. World War II A Student Companion. 1 ed. William H. Chafe. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
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