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Iconic Photo Of The Vietnam War

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Iconic Photo of the Vietnam War
This essay will be a discussion of a famous photograph from the Vietnam War by a French photographer, Marc Riboud. The photograph was captured in 1967 and it sends out a powerful message about war. The intention of the photo was to turn the public’s opinion against war. In this photograph, a young woman known as Jan Rose Kasmir comes face to face with guards outside the Pentagon and she is marching towards them in protest against war. Riboud saw this young innocent woman confront the guards and he slowly crept up to the side of her and took the picture with her not knowing. Many years later, Jose Rose Kasmir saw the picture and began to cry as it took her back to the overwhelming sadness of the war. I will discuss the technical aspects of the image and look at the various readings that can be seen. I will also discuss my own reflection of the photograph and the reasons why I chose to analyse it.
There are a number of technical aspects used in this photograph. It uses depth of field which gives a focused image. The photograph lacks sharpness apart from the flower that Jan Rose Kasmir is holding. The flower has a sharp focus and looking closely at the image, the quality in the flower compared to the focus in the young woman’s face is quite different. The way that this has been created makes the flower more appealing than looking at the guards or the young woman. The message in this photograph is direct and it’s clear to see the importance of the

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