RE: [Leica] Photojournalism and 9/11

["B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

The Nick Utt photo of the napalmed girl and the Eddie Adams photo did indeed
have real impact on public opinion.

However...This myth that Vietnam Inc. had a major impact on anything
is...well...myth. Take a look at the number of copies sold in the original
printing. And look at when it was published:
The Pentagon papers had come out; the Tet offensive was four years in the
past; Kent State had come and gone; Mei Lai (sp) had come and gone. Bottom
line - American public opinion had already turned against the war.
Negotiations were underway in Paris. Nixon wasn't running on a platform to
win the war, he was running claiming that he had a plan to end it. I know
that Noam Chomsky claims that Vietnam Inc. had a major impact on the course
of the war. (what a shock.) Vietnam Inc. was probably never seem by anyone
who was not already 100% opposed to the war.

Not that any of the above should detract from the fact that Vietnam Inc. is
a really amazing, powerful, piece of anti-war propaganda. But your example
provides yet aother example of how documentary photography fails to change
the world.

B. D.

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Andrew
Amundsen
Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2002 12:28 PM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: [Leica] Photojournalisim and 9/11


>From: Allan Wafkowski <allanwafkowski@mac.com> wrote (snip):
>>> One would be hard pressed to find empirical proof that photojournalism
>>> has had any profound effect on the world. One can find ample proof that
>>> art has profoundly changed the world. One need only look to the
>>> 1960s-1970s. The music, art, and literature played a profound role in
>>> changing American and European culture. It wasn't politics, and it
>>> wasn't newspaper photography. Five years of Disco changed the world
>>> more
>>> than 90 years of photojournalism.


The difference in timing of the two World Trade Center kamikaze's was
thought to be planned for maximum press coverage of the second plane.
I'd say that shows a worldwide belief in the impact and power of the
press and photojournalism. We can all immediately describe the now
iconic still photos such as the 'flag raising firemen', the bodies of
victims jumping from the towers and the little girl waving an American
flag on her father's shoulders. It should be safe to say the events
documented on and after Sept.11th, 2001, in still photojournalism, have
changed and will continue to change the world!

I'm sure others can site examples just as obvious as this!

I'm only 32, but I have read that Eddie Adam's photo of the 'Saigon
street execution', Nick Ut's image of a girl running screaming after
being naplamed, and Phillip Jones Griffith's book 'Vietnam,Inc.' all had
enormous impact on history, politics and America's involvment in
Vietnam!

Just a few of the top of my head- Andrew
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