READ THROUGH THIS BEFORE YOU LOOK AT THE PICTURES.
Alright, folks, here are some pictures that may seem a little brutish or improper to publish during times like these, were all the world is shocked by the shooting and bombing in Norway, the humanitarian crisis in Somalia, the wars in Afghanistan and Irak as well as the revolutions in the Middle East.
I am in no way trying to sugarcoat militarism, war and death in general. Armed conflicts are dreadful and in all cases unjustifiable as innocent lifes are lost, homes, villages and even cities destroyed or made uninhabitable. There have always been wars or conflicts over territory, power, race etc. and in future more will be fought over food and water.
I want to see these pictures not as a glorifying act for soldiers - i for my self want to explore the ways of photojournalism. I grew up looking at the beautiful yet shocking images that the National Geographic Magazine published over the years. A lot of them done by James Nachtwey and so i am impressed by the work that conflict journalists do. Please don´t missunderstand these images.
3 Kommentare:
wow!
"I want to see these pictures not as a glorifying act for soldiers "
sadly it doesen't really matter how you want to see them. The problem with pictures like this is that war just looks different. the military just looks different. guns and uniforms look different. and with every clean, polished and beautifully lit image (after all, they are technically "well done" - that's what i think) we see, we become more and more convinced that war just isn't that dirty. that soldiers just are people like everyone else, and that the army just is some normal thing that has a right to exist. but i don't think so at all.
i mean, just look at this:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/photos/the-kill-team-photos-20110327
continue with these photos however you think is right, but know what you are showing.
well whoever you are, i tend not to like anonymous comments :-)
even though you are quite right. the face of war looks radically different - no one can deny that, so far - but on the other hand i´d call every person naiv or ignorant who let´s him or herself get misled by these images, after all it´s "just" reenactment.
as well as concerning the cleanliness of war - the images real conflict photographers take, are a lot dirtier and less "polished" than mine here. so i wouldn´t really see the cause of people getting "brainwashed" by looking at conflict photographs rather than the whole mass of media information that is being shown on tv, the radio and in the newspapers - and with all the mess going on around the globe you can only imagine how many people are fed up with war and stop caring about death and chaos. - the more you know, the less you get curious.
and thinking about soldiers not being people like anybody else would make me laugh. why should´t they be? you can´t deny the large amount of reckless brutes in any army in the world and the highest amount probably within the us army but that doesn´t make all soldiers bloodthirsty friends of death and chaos.
i´d say the majority of people would act the same way if they would be put under the inhumane conditions soldiers work in. posttraumatic stress disorder being the least problem. anyway it wouldn´t justify the cruelty of the pictures in the link you posted. but these pictures have been taken by the soldiers themselves, and shared throughout their platoon, and not by any journalist.
to clarify my thoughts: photographs of war wont stop wars themselves. only the governments can. so blaming conflict journalists - or me for taking pictures wont help….voting the right government will.
have a nice day: :-)
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