Introduction
"War is partly madness, mostly insanity and the rest is schizophrenia.”- Don McCullin. (BBC Imagine 2013 McCullin)
Capturing the decisive moments of these wars have not just created a genre of photography called war photography but also enhanced public awareness. Both Donald McCullin and Eddie Adams, being photojournalists recognized for their war photography, have produced some outstanding photographs and successfully portrayed the harsh reality of war. Even though their conceptual concerns were similar, there was a visible variation in terms of their styles, techniques, compositions and subjects. A further comparison between the two photographers for the above attributes has been done later. Apart from his coverage of 13 wars,
…show more content…
McCullin was born in a poor section of London, United Kingdoms (McCullin D, Contact Press Images). Despite of being dyslexic he aspired to be a painter and showed immense talent in his drawings (Wroe N, 22 May 2010). It was very unfortunate that despite of getting junior arts scholarship to Hammersmith School of Arts and Crafts, he couldn’t pursue his studies further and had to leave school to earn money for his family after his father’s death (McCullin D, Wikipedia 11 August 2015). He got his first opportunity in the field of photography when he worked as a photographer’s assistant during his time of National service at the Royal Air Force (RAF) (Wroe N, 22 May 2010). In his early twenties with no formal training, McCullin began his career photographing the violent teenage gangs ruling Finsbury Park (BBC Imagine 2013 McCullin). He took the photographs of a London gang to The Observer, a British newspaper, they asked him to click more pictures and published them (BBC Imagine 2013 McCullin). This was a great breakthrough for him as he came from a violent background where people were judged on how well one could fight or steal or do harm to the society. He later worked with the Sunday Times Magazine, to cover many wars as a foreign correspondent. He covered the Vietnam War and the Northern Ireland conflict for which he got a lot of recognition (McCullin D, Wikipedia 11 August 2015). His objective of …show more content…
Don McCullin chose war photography because it made him feel he had a purpose (BBC Imagine 2013 McCullin). Purpose that was to portray the horrific humanity and the ugly truths of wars to the rest of the world and create awareness about the sufferings of people associated with these wars. McCullin documented a substantial number of conflicts and atrocities with different subjects in the photographs. His own sense of accountability and judgment about certain circumstances restrained his from taking some pictures (BBC Imagine 2013 McCullin). Unlike other photographer, he not just clicked pictures and completed his duties as a photographer but also helped on humanitarian grounds with whatever physical ability he had (BBC Imagine 2013 McCullin). Eddie Adams had an intense desire to be perfect with his photography and took close up portraits with an emphasis on the storytelling (Adler M, 2009). But despite of wanting to be perfect all the time with his framing, one of his most famous and iconic pictures, Saigon Execution, was a very spontaneous decision of just lifting the camera and pressing the click button without any thought process of how it's going to look. Adams’ spontaneity and perfectionist skills have
Everyday men and women die in the most brutal way possible away from their family either killed from gun shots or landmines and they do come back. But in caskets, as images like these emphasize the destruction of war and these snaps just show the side effects of humankind's worse anger being shown. In the Article “The Stranger in the Photo Is Me”, Donald M. Murray expresses how harsh it really was in the war and how it changed himself forever and not in a good way. Not to mention, that he describes the way he felt ready to go to war, maybe even excited, but he wishes that horror on no one “I would not wish for a child or grandchild of mine to undergo the blood test of war” as the sacrifice these men and women go through is undeniably tremendous
During the pre-Civil War era, the technology of photography was rare or still in development. All renderings of war were either in paintings or in literature. Since artists were the only people capable of creating
War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy is based on a war photographer who has experienced and witnessed the reality of war. The war photographer has returned to his quite home in England from his latest job. He develops the spools of film, he took in the frontline. As he organizes the pictures, he remembers the terrifying situation he is in, "A stranger's features faintly start to twist before his eyes a half-formed ghost." Then, he sends those pictures to the Sunday newspaper, where his editor will choose the ones to be printed.
While emotions were extremely high in the sense of angst for a better life, photography provided a new sense of reality to Americans and for others around the World. Photography all around the World is unlike anything else of its kind. People are able to tell stories and elicit emotions that bring the audience to that desired response. Throughout the 1930’s, photography from governmental institutions or advancements alone brought a new beginning to the end of a terrible time that Americans all around the nation
The photos which require long exposure time to capture a photo as it is still relatively invented, the photos generally captured the soldiers going into a battle and then laying dead from the result of the aftermath. Photography was a relatively a new technology but it was not a welcomed one as the photography pioneers displayed such vividly real images to civilians and noncombatants. Matthew Bradley was one of those pioneers which was quoted "From the first, I regarded myself as under obligation to my country to preserve the face of its historic men and mothers."
War can destroy a man both in body and mind for the rest of his life. In “The Sniper,” Liam O’Flaherty suggests the horror of war not only by presenting its physical dangers, but also by showing its psychological effects. We are left to wonder which has the longer lasting effect—the visible physical scars or the ones on the inside?
In the story “The War Photo No One Would Publish” by Torie Rose DeGhett the photographer (Kenneth Jarecke) takes gruesome photographs of deceased war victims. In 1991, the photo was taken of an Iraqi soldier struggling to pull himself out of a burning vehicle. The fire “incarcerated him to ash and blackened bone” (The War Photo No One Would Publish 1). After taking the photo, Jarecke wanted the image to be published but, due to its unsightly nature no one would publish it. DeGhett believed that this photo should be published he is trying to convince you as to why. The reason this shall not be posted is this soldier is somebody's family member; they do not want to see that image disseminated to the public.
“My conscience told me to run, but some irrational and powerful force was resisting, like a weight pushing me towards war (49).” “I did not want people to think badly of me. Not my parents, not my brother or sister, not even the folks at Gobler Café (49).” These men were stuck between a rock and a hard place, and this was the case in many aspects of war, not
War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, written by the talented author Chris Hedges, gives us provoking thoughts that are somewhat painful to read but at the same time are quite personal confessions. Chris Hedges, a talented journalist to say the least, brings nearly 15 years of being a foreign correspondent to this book and subjectively concludes how all of his world experiences tie together. Throughout his book, he unifies themes present in all wars he experienced first hand. The most important themes I was able to draw from this book were, war skews reality, dominates culture, seduces society with its heroic attributes, distorts memory, and supports a cause, and allures us by a
This essay will investigate the work of contemporary photographer Tim Walker, and historical photographer Ansel Adams. This essay will examine the many changes of how photography has evolved through the decades from the photographer’s style, use of equipment, techniques and what photography is used for. These changes will be seen by looking at the contemporary photographer and comparing them to the historical photographer.
The clothing of the soldier looks civilian, but he seems to have all the equipment for war. By taking a closer look at the photo, the feeling of the bullet going through the soldier’s head seems realistic. The composition of the photo have included the motion of the soldier falling back with pain and death. In analysis of the photo, there were several reasons that made it so impactful for the world and the history of war photography. First of all, the close up of the soldier being killed reflected on the bloody side of war. In addition, the picture emphasizes on people have lost their live pursuing for what they believe. Throughout Robert Capa’s career, his intention as a war photographer was never in the interest on how the advancement of weapon or artillery. His work and his intention has always been on people and how war has affect people in multiple ways. As a young kid serving days in the Hungarian jail, he knows how it feels to be oppressed by the dictatorship and living without what a purpose. War is the solution to regain freedom, but it is also a method to take away freedom. People are always the winners and the losers of
The first fascinating difference between this work and the majority of other war photography presents itself in a fairly obvious manner. The soldiers’ faces in “Into the Jaws of Death” are turned away from the photo so as to make them invisible to the audience. Instead, we see only the supplies on their backs and the camouflage on their uniforms. The effect of this lack of eye contact is that the audience cannot connect with the people in the photograph. The majority of other wartime photographs used iconic images of courageous and vibrant soldiers rushing fearlessly into the glory of battle or contained motivational quotes requesting support for the troops. “Into the Jaws Of Death” does neither of these, entirely on purpose. Because we as the audience do not have eye contact
In the second stanza , the writer is said to quote: "He has a job to
In war, photography and art again serve the purpose of acknowledging and sometimes protesting suffering. In the First World War cameras were used for military intelligence, to capture an event. "The caption of a photograph is traditionally neutral informative: a date, a place, names." A photograph is supposed to just record what happened and not takes sides. However, "it is always the image that someone chose; to photograph is to frame, and to frame is to exclude." So the photograph is supposed to be neutral, but the photographer is still deciding what details to focus on. The caption has just facts on it, because supposedly that is what the photograph is recording. While it is true that photographs cannot explain everything themselves, they do serve as visual aids to, what otherwise be, a pallid world.
Photographers were expected to be able to take these mind blowing pictures of the war in rapid action, but the truth is there technology back then wasn’t advanced enough to be able to produce these sort of images. The images took only minutes to develop but a huge