Your next blog post will involve reflecting on photography and various aspects of war. On the Smithsonian Photography Initiative web site, there are 5 essays that address aspects of war photography: in "What we Remember," David Friend writes about photography and 9/11; in "Where we Go," Von Hardesty writes about aerial reconnaissance photography, as does Sandra Phillips in "What we See"; in "What we Do," Fred Richtin examines "citizen journalism"; and in "What we Want" Bruce Hoffman addresses photography and terrorism and and the impact of closed-circuit television.
Pick one of these essays and first summarize what the author said. The write a reflection on what you think of the topic. For example, some themes that run through these essays are the impact of photographic surveillance and amateur photography of world events. Have we given up too much of our privacy so that terrorists and other criminals can be identified? Can there be too much surveillance? Revolutions and other tumultuous events can now be photographed with cell phones and end up on Facebook: how does that change our perceptions of these events?
Your post should be at least 250 words (one double-spaced typed page); longer is encouraged.
I can't figure out how to make my own post.
ReplyDeleteDavid Friend’s article, “Photography Changes How We Experience History,” reflects on how the extensive photography of the 9/11 attacks changes how people see the event. He starts off by talking about three main people who unconsciously captured the events in New York City, Wolfgang Staehle, an artist, Jules Naudet, a filmmaker, and Pavel Hlava, a tourist. These three men did not know the events that were going to take place that day and the impact that their almost accidental recording of those events would have. Friend goes on to discuss how these men, and the world, became mesmerized by the attacks, and that this is the goal of terrorism, to create a spectacle for “frightened eyes.” Friend states that the World Trade Center attacks are considered the most photographed breaking news event in history, and that the amount of photographed evidence makes this event concrete in the sense that no one will be able to go back and challenge the public record in the future. Conspiracy theorists have already started making up stories about what happened on 9/11, but the objectivity of the multitude of photographs makes this difficult.
The ending quote from Staehle sums up the shock of the 9/11 attacks, “History was coming on like a train. And I just walked onto the track, and history ran me over.” Staehle is referring to how the history crushed his artistic vision, but this quote can be applied to most people who witnessed the events of 9/11, whether in person or on television or the Internet. The entire nation was in a state of surprise and disbelief, but the constant barrage of images made us believe. Digital images have solidified out history; there will be no questions in the future about the exact events that took place on 9/11, no archaeologists digging through our cities, no art historians trying to decipher our artwork. Friend states that the photographs could be complied to form an objective view of the attacks. In this case, photography provides the truth.
Photography Changes How Wars Are Fought Article Reflection
ReplyDeleteRobert Adler
In his article Von Hardesty discusses how photography and ariel reconaisaance has really changed the way is which wars are fought. Althoughs wars are fought with bullets and explosive they are also fought with information and for the purposes of war there is little information more usefull thatn photography. The pictures featured in this article are low level shots of the gray beached of Normandy. In the black and white of the photographs the air seems still and lifeless. The pylons, fortifications topped with mind sit silently and there is not a single german to be seen. Yet, in days these beaches would be the site of one of WWII most horrific battles. In wartime reconaisaance photography we see a different side of wartime photography. The men who took these pictures were in danger, for the pictures we have there are ones that were lost in a cloud of flak or at the hands of some german pilot. These pictures have the power to save lives in many ways which serves to demonstrate the sheer importance of photographs in the modern world. Hardesty also discuss how no place on the world is not photographed in our modern age. Throught the advent of satileties and the high powered cameras on them its is possible to take an almost street level pictures of any place in the world. In many ways privacy is dead. These cameras in the clouds may serve other purposes but there origin still comes from the reconaisaance photos of the world wars. In reflection this article is an important discussion of how photography really interacts with the world around it. It is more than art, it is an imporant tool that may save lives.