Image control...

[DanaC]

I have been told it has also been posted onto edonkey and several other filesharing sites

[jaguar]

Anyone that was involved with De-CSS knows that once something is no the net, you can't get it off, that's never been proven wrong, once it hits the filesharing networks (and it has), there is no way that can effectively shut it down, it's too distributed. Exactly why such networks are fantastic tools.

Oh an UT, I agree completely. All information on the war, all videos, all photos, no matter how unpalateable to anyone should be availaible for all to see. The worst ones should be on the top half of the front page for people to mull over as they eat breakfast. Iraqis getting blown in half by .50cal sniper fire, US soliders dragging away their buddies that just copped an AK round to the groin, burnt bodies littering the street. That was next time some armchair warrior asshole wants to yell out 'bring it on', they'll remember exactly what IT is.

There was a photo on the back of Adbusters a year or two back from the first gulf war of an Iraqi soldier who has burnt to death trying to get out of a tank that was hit by a bomb, grusome as hell, they had a quote from the photographer:

"If I don't photograph this, people like my mom will think the war is what they see on T.V"
- Kenneth Jarecke, photojournalist.

He's someone whose footsteps I would love to follow.

[Undertoad]

Ah but the war will still be what she sees on TV.

[jaguar]

It's better than nothing. It's a start.

[DanaC]

There was a picture on the front cover of the Observer in the UK from that first gulf war which genuinely shocked me. Your post reminded me of it Jag. It showed the scorched remains of the massacre on the road to Basra. It may have been the same picture

[warch]

Its an ironic war of image control. A successful mission accomplished now seems to require that any new popularly supported Iraqi government hold the image of "defeating and ousting" the US occupation. We need to maneuver so that we can be "beaten" by the moderate, democracy loving bunch rather than the radical, head chopping faction.

[DanaC]

We need to maneuver so that we can be "beaten" by the moderate, democracy loving bunch rather than the radical, head chopping faction.

Thats an interesting angle

[warch]

I thought so too. I should clarify that I read that somewhere I cant remember, It didnt originally occur to me.

[jaguar]

That was the image as it appeared on the back of Adbusters. It was heavily repressed during the end of the war, ti was only a while after that it managed to get published. It's from the 'turkey shoot' US pilots ran on retreating Iraqi troops at the end of the war.

The guy who took it is a fucking legend, utter maverick with a long histroy of taking pictures governments don't want their people to see and risking his life to make sure they do. Damn fine article on this topic here

I have only ever considered myself a photographer - nothing more, nothing less. I went to war and thought of people and pain, not exhibitions and awards. I looked into people's eyes and they would look back and there would be something like a meeting of guilt. As a war photographer, you cannot escape guilt, particularly when the man in front of you who is just about to be shot appeals to you to help him.


Photography is not just about photographs; it's about communication. It's not about you. It's not about art. You're there to record. Sometimes, all too rarely, what you record is acts of human decency, of kindness and compassion - I have seen men cradling dying comrades and weeping. But that's the only side of war you will see that is beautiful.