In my view, images of war don't numb my response. Over time they become easier to look at, because you become more used to seeing gory details, but they still shock. And in fact, because you are able to look more easily, the impact is more shocking as you are able to look for longer and take in more detail. I certainly don't feel compassion fatigue. In fact, what I am currently feeling is that I wish I was 20 years younger and not tied in to the mortgage system, so that I could be a war journalist and make a contribution towards raising awareness and getting knowledge to the right people.
I personally believe that we don't do enough to prevent war; we happily elect governments that seem willing to send troops into wars that are nothing to do with us, and the problem with sending graphic imagery to news agencies is potentially that it reaches the wrong people. The politicians making the decisions to sacrifice people's lives should be the ones that are forced to witness these events.
If journalists stop showing the public images of the appalling cruelty and degradation of human life, how else will people know what's going on? And how else will people be incited to take action? In my view, the question of action or inaction depends on many factors particular to each individual, for instance, available time, resources, family commitments, access to communications and transport, political motivations and innate compassion. I don't think you can blame the lack of inaction on the bombardment of images as Ritchin (2014) argues; there are people who do take action and I wonder if they would have done this had the images not existed? Moreover, is it about the number of images available, or is it that people simply do not look? And I also don't think you can make a connection with the existence, start and end of wars on photography; wars exist as a result of political, religious, social or ethnic situations.
Last night, I watched the film A Thousand Times Goodnight directed by Eric Poppe about this very topic. In the film the photographer was accused of sensationalising shocking images, to which she responded that she photographed what she saw, as she saw it. And of course it is the photographer's skill that makes the images have impact.
To refer to a later point in the course materials, I think that both photographs taken in action and "late" photographs can be effective. In some cases, late photography can be chilling, but in this case, the photographer most likely has more time to compose a beautiful or striking image than a photographer who is at the scene of a war situation. Campany (2003) argues that "aftermath" photography has become fashionable (in many photography genres); I think the difficult with late photography is that you are adding an element of interpretation beyond the photographers; the removal of the action and inclusion of the trace only may leave the viewer wondering what has happened. It is quite possible for such an image to be misinterpreted and therefore to lose its impact (unless there is sufficient text present to guide the reader). I think there is definitely a place in late photography, but on the subject of war, its purpose should be to illustrate the impact or effect of war, i.e. the longer lasting state, than the immediate cruelty and torture of war.
Websites:
- Campany, D. 2003 Safety in Numbness available from http://davidcampany.com/safety-in-numbness/ [accessed 28 September 2014]
- Ritchin, F. in Time Lightbox (2014)When Photographs of Atrocities Don't Shock available from http://lightbox.time.com/2014/01/28/when-photographs-of-atrocities-dont-shock/#1 [accessed 28 September 2014]
- Wikipedia (2014) A Thousand Times Goodnight available from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Thousand_Times_Good_Night [accessed 28 September 2014]
- Wikipedia (2014) Eric Poppe available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Poppe [accessed 28 September 2014]
- Poppe, E. (2014) (film) A Thousand Times Goodnight, Arrow Films
- Sontag, S. (1979) On Photography, London: Penguin Books Ltd
- Sontag, S. (2003) Regarding the Pain of Others, London: Penguin Books Ltd
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