Monday, July 28, 2008

War Photos...




Saw this GREAT ARTICLE over on the Huffington Post and had to link to it here.

Some out there might not know it about me, but before I wrote, I scratched the creative itch via illustration and photography, and I'm always on the lookout for things that push our understanding of our current human condition just a bit further.

The article describes the overwhelming crackdown of Iraq and Afghanistan war imagery being distributed to the outside world via the military's "embed" process. The term "censorship" is often bandied about in the article, and I'm not convinced that it's wrong to do so, even as I'm simultaneously understanding of, say, a dead service-man's or -woman's family's desire for privacy. It's a tough call, I understand, but I also know full well that censorship is never the answer.

Either way, it's a fascinating article, as are the ones the author links to in support of his thesis.

ADDENDUM:

One of the sites linked in the article above is the blog site of Zoriah Miller, a photojournalist that dared go against the military by shooting, and publishing, honest pictures of the war, and who was expelled from that country because of it. He is the photojournalist who took not only the top image, but also the image at the bottom. Please be careful in viewing his site, which includes a graphic and honest story of the aftermath of a suicide bomb attack in Fallujah. As horrifying as some of the images were, it's the shot of the man below that makes the breath hitch in my chest and my eyes burn:

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