In 1826 Joseph Nicéphore Niépce took the first documented photograph. No more than thirty years later, the British government tried several times to document their progress in the Crimean War through the use of photography. Ever since then, war photographs have been and will continue to be used as a way to evoke a certain reaction from the public. Leaders will show positive or negative images and use the pros and cons of photography to their advantage to manipulate the minds of the population.
Unfortunately, there are many ways that photos can be manipulated to serve a certain purpose. Photos can be staged, or things can be kept in or out of the frame, or they can be given specific captions to distract the audience from what is really happening. In his book, The Censored War, George H. Roeder said, “Governments at war use the truth whenever it serves their purposes; it is ambiguity which they find intolerable” (Roeder 81). …show more content…
Even though the war could very well have been a collective effort, why create a fake scene when there was probably a multitude of other opportunities to capture real time images of soldiers carrying out duties and actions that portray the same idea? Personally, before I was informed that the men in this image were positioned and directed by the photographer, I admired these men and felt a sense of pride in our country, but after finding out that it was all staged I lost both of those feelings and realized it was all simply ‘for
Unfortunately, there are many ways that photos can be manipulated to serve a certain purpose. Photos can be staged, or things can be kept in or out of the frame, or they can be given specific captions to distract the audience from what is really happening. In his book, The Censored War, George H. Roeder said, “Governments at war use the truth whenever it serves their purposes; it is ambiguity which they find intolerable” (Roeder 81). …show more content…
Even though the war could very well have been a collective effort, why create a fake scene when there was probably a multitude of other opportunities to capture real time images of soldiers carrying out duties and actions that portray the same idea? Personally, before I was informed that the men in this image were positioned and directed by the photographer, I admired these men and felt a sense of pride in our country, but after finding out that it was all staged I lost both of those feelings and realized it was all simply ‘for