Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/12/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On Dimanche, décembre 14, 2003, at 08:46 AM, langhans wrote: > Anyone else have photos that define a particular war? Aram: With the quantity of images in the past decades, I'm not sure there can still be particular symbolic representative images of specific wars. The further back we go, the closer the link between a war and a photograph to represent it collectively. Simply a question of rarity of images. D-Day is only visually remembered by a few surviving shots from Capa, the only photographer to go on shore with the troops, and his negatives where mostly all melted by a careless lab tech. The Republican soldier was the first war photograph of 'death as it happened'. The Civil War is visually documented by Fenton (and subsequently Gardner) and Brady's photographs of death fields. As we get closer to present day our mind has multiple images of multiple wars. In fact, one can wonder if the more pictures we have of wars, the less acutely we can engage in a common sense of rejection of the war itself. But more recent photographs stand out (still because of rarity?), for example the Stuart Franklin photograph of the student holding up the tanks in Tiananment square in '89. If photography can be a rallying point, then a photograph becomes emblem. (How we engage with war photography, as viewer, society, and photographer, is surely one of the most complex subjects...) In this case, the images I mention below are public, and personal, emblems of peace; except probably the republican soldier photograph: that one holds a fascination of another nature. Robert Capa's falling republican soldier (Spanish War) and his few surviving shots from D-Day as well as his passionate pictures of the liberation of Paris (WWII). George Rodger, 'The Blitz', London 1944 Ernst Hass' Homecoming prisoners, Vienna 1947 David Douglas Duncan, Captain Ike Fenton, Corea 1950 Raymond Depardon, West-Berlin, 1962 Don McCullin's dead VC soldier with personal pictures, Vietnam '68 Philip Jones Griffiths, Boy crying over the dead body of his sister, Vietnam '68 Stuart Franklin, Tiananmen square, Peking, '89 Luc Delahaye's 'Trois Frères' in Sarajevo '93 James Natchwey, Feeding Area, Sudan '93 & Hutu Man, Rwanda '97, Students celebrating Suharto's departure, Jakarta '98 WWI only had military appointed photographers. Apparently, in certain armies, if you we in service and took pictures the sentence was death by firing squad. On Dimanche, décembre 14, 2003, at 08:46 AM, langhans also wrote: > After experiencing > Vietnam, I no longer have any interest in those things. No longer > obsessed > by man's ability to kill man. Saw enough of that, so photos no longer > stick > in my mind. And I'll also mention André Kertez, who's life and career was greatly affected by both world wars, but his lens never came close to a battlefield, and he only seemed to be able to capture sweet poetry. Cheers. Luc On Dimanche, décembre 14, 2003, at 08:46 AM, langhans wrote: > With war and war photographers in the news and on the LUG lately, I > thought > I'd pose a question. > > I just started reading the book "Flags of Our Fathers" by James > Bradley. I > am not into it enough to comment on the book itself, but it got me > thinking > of war photos. What is the first photo that comes to mind when you > think of > a particular war? I might suggest two photos that come to my mind > about two > wars. > > WWII was before my time, but I think the flag raising on Mt. Suribachi > photo > which this book is about is probably the single photo that comes to my > mind. > Another candidate might be Eisenstaedt's sailor kiss photo on V-J day. > > Vietnam is definitely in my time frame and the photo that comes to > mind that > symbolizes that war is the young girl burned by napalm running down the > road. > > I really don't have any other photos for any other wars in mind. When > I was > much younger I would play soldier and was interested in all the > weapons of > early wars. Built model airplanes and the like. After experiencing > Vietnam, I no longer have any interest in those things. No longer > obsessed > by man's ability to kill man. Saw enough of that, so photos no longer > stick > in my mind. > > Anyone else have photos that define a particular war? > > Aram > > > > -- > To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html > - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html