Essay About War Photography

Improved Essays
Truth about War Photography
War Photography has been around for year and years and there's always been questions about their representation of the truth. There has always been a partiality of the representation but some want to know does photography shows the wars up close and personal or they might say what’s the purpose of war photography.
Some people believe that the purpose of war photography Is that it has shifted throughout the years. During the earlier years of war photography the photos were purely used to inform the public and for the public to see what happen during that particular war at that time. But in contrast, some recent war photography, due to the censoring of some photos has become nothing more than just propaganda and staged and the
…show more content…
War photography as an activity beyond the war zone itself because it allows people around the world to see how people after the war look and how they got through the war alive.
The decision to take these photos of the war from many years makes war seem like what it is, a chronic condition, a perennial dysfunction in most families of men. At the same time most say the chronology is useful for motioning how pictures became so important to understand the conflict of what happen. The real problem for war photography today, isn’t the lies about the photos but telling the truth about what really happened. They may not be able to compel any particular way or judgement of the wars they might represent, but they can lead you to a recognition of what the person wants the viewers to see. But after that, if photos itself can’t stop the war and they can’t fault the ones who takes these photos, it's not the pictures but the ones who takes them.
So, if we are not being spared from the extremely graphic photos, would it change our perception of wars or even change the world's view of things or maybe for who we vote for?

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Flags of Our Fathers This book captures the difficult times during World War II aiming particularly at the Battle of Iwo Jima in Japan. Including six individuals whose lives have never cross were destined to freeze in-time together, forever in a photo op they never consented to. Taking pictures would be the last thing on their mind in the heat of battle. A Marine's mind processes various trains of thought, for example, where is my buddy, did he survive the mortar attack or is the next one gonna hit me?…

    • 927 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    War Rhetorical Analysis

    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages

    II. Diction In the novel War is... people talk about when they served in the military and how it was a very difficult time for them. There are multiple authors in this book so you hear a lot of different voices. The mood these authors all set for these stories they tell is very solemn and indifferent “For the people of one country to try to kill as many of the people of another country as possible makes no sense at all, in terms of our common humanity ” (Campbell 3).…

    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    War Dbq Analysis

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages

    People don’t know how bad war is until they experience it for themselves. Some military people who went through war try to create different methods to protest war. Soldiers or people who went through war try to express how they feel. What tools can writers use to protest war? People who have seen war create many different methods to protest about war.…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Tim O Brien Storytelling

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The war is very intense, real life things that had happened that you would never think was real. The the things they carried is a book that Tim O’ Brien that told some very powerful things about the Vietnam war. Things that you would never think ispossible. O’ Brien exposes all the messed up people who were once an average person who is very messed up now. He exposes the truth of it all.…

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Man’s sins have always brought a twisted beauty to life. War is no exception. As the essence of life itself abides beyond mere words, constantly slipping away from our crude means of humanizing the world, so does war gain immunity to our human romanticism. In The Things They Carried, novelist Tim O’Brien makes a clear point of this in the chapter “How to Tell a True War Story.” O’Brien recounts his experiences through fiction in order to capture the feeling of war as accurately as possible, but the whole quality of war eludes capture nonetheless.…

    • 1290 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Great War Dbq

    • 1639 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Throughout history, war has often proven to be a transformative event not only to the countries involved, but also to the soldiers and citizens who lived through and experienced the war. World War 1, also known as the Great War, was one of the most globally transformative events in human history. This war mainly pitted Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire against France, Britain, Russia, and Italy. War is not only tragic, but it transforms the public’s opinion about their enemies and of war in general. The true horrors of war are shown by the effect on the soldier’s minds.…

    • 1639 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    War Films Analysis

    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages

    (INTRO HERE) The war film genre is a type of film that you would imagine is concerned with warfare. Warfare that includes all types: air, ground, naval, etc.…

    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In 2009 the Associated Press took a chance after much deliberation to publish a Julie Jacobson photo of a United States Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard, after he had been injured; the soldier later succumb to his injuries and perished. The family of the deceit asked that the photo not be published but the A.P. went on with the publication despite criticism, and I believe publishing was the right choice. This decision of mine did not come instantly, when doing my research on the topic my initial thought was that they were wrong in publishing something if the family did not condone it, but after further thought I think it served a greater purpose; showing the American People the true gruesomeness behind the war in a tasteful manner. One…

    • 1558 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Memories and moments can be remembered deep within our mind and shared by word, but these days people choose to remember these things by taking pictures and viewing photos with others. Technology these days makes that so simple. Take out a phone, snap a picture, and post it on a social media website or share it with all your friends via text. Travel back roughly 155 years ago and taking snapshots weren’t even close to that easy. From 1860-1865 American was fighting a Civil War that broke out between the Northern and Southern States because of several slavery disputes.…

    • 1346 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Technology In Civil War

    • 1671 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Death, destruction, and mayhem are just a few of the vestiges of modern war present throughout the United State Civil War. This conflict was based on industrialization moving to the boundaries of total war. The American Civil War is the first modern war due to innovation in technology. This is because of advances in weaponry, logistic, and communications. The industrial Revolution allowed for the greatest level of production in human history, which in turn led to the greatest level of destruction known during that time.…

    • 1671 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Tim O'Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, eloquently (NR) demonstrates the theme of ‘beauty in horror’. The novel emphasizes this theme through the underlying foil between beauty and atrocities that are not uncommon in war stories. O'Brien focuses on the imagery of these events as well as the tone to illustrate the difficulties that soldiers are exposed to and how they have been conditioned to their situation to no longer see the horror in these horrific events rather start seeing them as beautiful events. The relevance of this theme is most prevalent in the short story, “How to Tell a True War Story.” This short story illustrates many different barbaric events that have been very beautifully illustrated.…

    • 1359 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    War Photographer Poem

    • 2207 Words
    • 9 Pages

    The idea of suffering and pain of the people is locked in the photographs. Still, the photos depict the vivid details of the aftermath of warfare. Due to the efforts of war photographers, people can see the reality they can’t even imagine. People can pick up the news articles of people suffering and children who cannot struggle for themselves.…

    • 2207 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    War is truly a traumatic experience that no one who’s involved can truly get over. War forces you to see all the gruesome and negative things you never thought you would experience. Tim O’Brien is a prime example of just how much war can put you through and how it changes you as a person. Tim was just in need of venting and expression and so he embodied all of his horrific and flabbergasting experiences in a novel known as “The Things They Carried” along with various soldiers he met along the way while fighting for both his country and his life. Tim O’Brien once made the assertion in an interview with Texas Monthly which states “Good movies—and good novels, too—do not depend upon accurate portrayals.…

    • 1642 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The paradoxical role of photography in contemporary life is explored by Teju Cole in his essay “Memories of Things Unseen.” When a photograph is the last trace we have of a destroyed work of art, it becomes something more, or so it seems. Photography in its purest form is simply a method of storytelling without the need for words. Many factors go into taking a photo. You don't simply take a photo using just your eyes, but rather with your emotions, experience, and heart.…

    • 950 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Falling Man Analysis

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages

    There is only so much a news article can say, but a photograph can bring emotion to you that changes your outlook on that situation. For example, a very famous photo by Richard Drew called ‘The Falling Man’, a photograph of the 9/11 attack witnessing the moment a workman from the towers plummeted to the ground after jumping. Even though this event was worldwide renowned, many people were unaware of the actual emotion associated with the event, the terror and the destruction that happened on that date. The different and most impacting part of this image is that from this event the most widely known photographs were of the planes or the towers, whereas Drews photograph was of the people, which creates a whole new level of compassion and emotion…

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays