[Leica] War Photographers

[photo.forrest at earthlink.net (Phil Forrest)]

Marty,
I was speaking of the very green photographers who have just gotten all
that shiny new gear and their brand new body armor & Kevlar helmet. The
ones who haven't smelled death yet and have only seen suffering through
the works of the greats who went before them. Brand new invincible
photographers. I was one once. The seasoned ones are there and will
remain there to try to effect what education they can on the condition
but like Emanuel said, it's up to the editors and the networks to get
the images out there.

Phil Forrest


On Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:00:40 +1030
Marty Deveney <benedenia at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Jan 11, 2012 at 2:38 PM, EPL <manolito at videotron.ca> wrote:
> > So let's all boycott war photography. Just ignore it. Encourage
> > photographers to photograph love and beauty and to bombard our
> > every senses and our hours with just that, as much as possible.
> > It's the only antidote.
> 
> Pretending that only nice things happen in the world doesn't help
> anyone, and it can make things worse.  Documentation makes it harder
> to pretend in the future that bad things didn't happen, they can
> sometimes be used to aid in restitution or bringing war criminals to
> justice, and some of us _do_ want to see it, not out of any ghoulish
> or prurient desires, but out of a need to be informed.  I have no love
> for war but am familiar enough with it not to find realistic coverage
> shocking or entertaining.  But I also want to know.
> 
> On Wed, Jan 11, 2012 at 2:09 PM, Phil Forrest
> <photo.forrest at earthlink.net> wrote:
> > I think they either have a lust for danger and a
> > deathwish OR they have spent too much time in video games and movies
> > where one can simply reset the game or stop the movie if it gets too
> > bad.
> 
> I am deeply respectful of your experiences Phil, but here I disagree.
> Maybe those who want to be combat photographers but haven't done it
> yet are like this.  I'd also bet that very few of them actually ever
> get there - it's hard, as well as horrible and dangerous.  There are
> noteworthily few civilian war photographers.  I've met a lot of people
> who regularly work photographing in conflict zones and none of them is
> anything like this.  Mostly they believe that documentation is
> necessary, and that telling the stories of people affected by conflict
> mean something to the people, the photographer and some of the
> photographer's audience.
> 
> I'm glad we still have you, and Ted, and I'm awfully sorry for the
> loss that we suffer whenever there is a conflict, but I'm also glad
> there are people who are willing to document it for us, so we can form
> some opinions of our own.  To me a flawed set of information is better
> than a vacuum.
> 
> Marty
> 
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