It's perhaps one of the most overused clichs ever, but it's hard to deny that in some cases a picture really is worth a thousand words. Artistic photography can is a fascinating use of the medium. However, documentary photography is probably the purest and most powerful form. It has the ability to highlight injustice or suffering, but it can also give people hope.
Photographers who work in warzones or other scenes of human misery such as natural disasters often find themselves in a complex moral quandary. They are there in a journalistic capacity, and their job is to document what they see rather than involve themselves in the situation. The flipside of showing important images to the world is that photographers watch terrible things unfold without intervening. This may seem like a job for someone lacking in compassion, but photographers routinely risk their own lives, and many have been shot at, kidnapped and killed in the field.
The photo that perhaps best encapsulates the moral dilemmas faced by journalists, whilst also conveying the risks they take, was taken by Nick Ut in Vietnam in 1972. It depicts a group of Vietnamese children fleeing a US napalm attack, with a naked, screaming girl named Kim Phuc at the centre of the image. The photo made a global impact, graphically illustrating the suffering being caused at the hands of the American military, and further galvanizing the anti-war movement.
Perhaps even more disturbing is a photo known as The Last Jew of Vinnista. Found in the personal photo album of a Nazi SS soldier, it was taken in 1941 and shows an emaciated Jewish man sitting on the edge of a corpse-filled ditch, with a death camp guard holding a pistol to the back of his head. He was killed perhaps less than a second after the photo was taken. There were 28,000 Jews living in the Ukranian city when WWII began - none of them survived.
Photos like these get their power from their uncompromising portrayal of humanity at its worst, but there also are many images celebrating human achievements that deserve an equal place in history. One example, taken whilst under enemy fire, is US Marine photographer Joe Rosenthal's unforgettable shot of four American soldiers courageously raising the American flag on Mount Surbachi, Japan, as WWII approached its conclusion. Another photo that beautifully symbolises the human spirit at its best is Buzz Aldrin's 1969 shot of the first human footprint on the Moon. The footprint, which poignantly encapsulates our instinctive fascination with the unknown, will remain there for millions of years.
Photographers who work in warzones or other scenes of human misery such as natural disasters often find themselves in a complex moral quandary. They are there in a journalistic capacity, and their job is to document what they see rather than involve themselves in the situation. The flipside of showing important images to the world is that photographers watch terrible things unfold without intervening. This may seem like a job for someone lacking in compassion, but photographers routinely risk their own lives, and many have been shot at, kidnapped and killed in the field.
The photo that perhaps best encapsulates the moral dilemmas faced by journalists, whilst also conveying the risks they take, was taken by Nick Ut in Vietnam in 1972. It depicts a group of Vietnamese children fleeing a US napalm attack, with a naked, screaming girl named Kim Phuc at the centre of the image. The photo made a global impact, graphically illustrating the suffering being caused at the hands of the American military, and further galvanizing the anti-war movement.
Perhaps even more disturbing is a photo known as The Last Jew of Vinnista. Found in the personal photo album of a Nazi SS soldier, it was taken in 1941 and shows an emaciated Jewish man sitting on the edge of a corpse-filled ditch, with a death camp guard holding a pistol to the back of his head. He was killed perhaps less than a second after the photo was taken. There were 28,000 Jews living in the Ukranian city when WWII began - none of them survived.
Photos like these get their power from their uncompromising portrayal of humanity at its worst, but there also are many images celebrating human achievements that deserve an equal place in history. One example, taken whilst under enemy fire, is US Marine photographer Joe Rosenthal's unforgettable shot of four American soldiers courageously raising the American flag on Mount Surbachi, Japan, as WWII approached its conclusion. Another photo that beautifully symbolises the human spirit at its best is Buzz Aldrin's 1969 shot of the first human footprint on the Moon. The footprint, which poignantly encapsulates our instinctive fascination with the unknown, will remain there for millions of years.
No comments:
Post a Comment