So I started to chat up soldiers. Just as I had finished the formalities of name, age, rank and hometown with a young private from Michigan, I was interrupted by an officer who explained that a handful of soldiers had been chosen to speak to the press, and that the remainder of the group was off limits.
Link: Speak No Evil: A Post-McChrystal Press Clampdown – At War Blog – NYTimes.com
What skeptics fear is that reporters come to identify with the military to such an extent that they no longer have the will, even if they have the means, to report bad news. Whether conscious of it or not, they self-censor.
via At War Blog: http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/embedistan-2/
What such skeptics fear is that reporters come to identify with the military to such an extend that they no longer have the will, even if they have the means, to report bad news. Whether conscious of it or not, they self-censor.
Certainly anyone who has embedded for any length of time is familiar with remarks such as: “You didn’t hear that/You didn’t see that…”, “Do you have to use that…?”, “That’s not what he meant to say…”, “That was off the record…”, “Can you leave that out…?”.
This Friday, June 25th, it will have been sixty years since the beginning of the Korean War in 1950. After decades of Japanese occupation, Korea was divided in two by Allied Forces at the end of World War II, with the south administered by the U.S. and th
via Boston.com: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/remembering_the_korean_war_60.html
This Friday, June 25th, it will have been sixty years since the beginning of the Korean War in 1950. After decades of Japanese occupation, Korea was divided in two by Allied Forces at the end of World War II, with the south administered by the U.S. and the north by Soviet Russia. Deep divisions built over several years, leading to skirmishes and finally an invasion by North Korean troops on June 25th, 1950. The United Nations sent troops and support from 21 countries to support South Korea, primarily from the United States and Britain. The war lasted for three years, with large advances and retreats on both sides, and many casualties. Over two million Korean civilians lost their lives, and nearly two million soldiers from 17 different countries were killed. The two Koreas are technically still at war since hostilities ended in a ceasefire, not a peace treaty in 1953. Though it is often referred to as “The Forgotten War”, I hope this collection of photographs helps us to remember the events of 1950-53, those involved, and the legacy that still remains, sixty years later. (48 photos total)
Eric Bouvet:
Deep within the treacherous terrain of the Uzbin Valley, young soldiers of the French International Security Assistance Force had a mission to fulfill: to take the valley, the same valley that saw a dozen French soldiers killed in an ambush by Afghan militants in August 2008. During the course of six months, the troops took the valley and every last village within, using what little mental and physical strength they had left. Not once during this time had they used their weapons, nor had they seen a Taliban. There had been an occassional attack upon them, but no one knew from where. Most days, the valley was hauntingly still, like a ghost, heightening the tension and fear of confrontation–as though scenes from Dino Buzatti’s “The Tartar Steppe” had come to life.
Link: Photo Essay Uzbin Valley
With the premier nearing of his documentary, “Restrepo,” Tim Hetherington takes time to talk with Michael Kamber about the future of photojournalism.
via Lens Blog: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/behind-44/
The documentary “Restrepo,” directed by Mr. Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, will open Friday. Last week, Mr. Hetherington sat down with Mr. Kamber in Midtown Manhattan to talk about the film — and much else besides. Their remarks have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Yesterday was June 6th, the 66th anniversary of the successful 1944 Allied invasion of France. Several operations were combined to carry out the largest amphibious invasion in history – over 160,000 troops landed on June 6th, assisted by over 5,000 ships,
via Boston.com: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/remembering_d-day_66_years_ago.html
Yesterday was June 6th, the 66th anniversary of the successful 1944 Allied invasion of France. Several operations were combined to carry out the largest amphibious invasion in history – over 160,000 troops landed on June 6th, assisted by over 5,000 ships, aerial bombardment, gliders and paratroopers. Thousands of soldiers lost their lives on those beaches on that day – many thousands more would follow as the invasion succeeded and troops began to push German forces eastward, eventually leading to the Allied victory in 1945. Collected here are some photographs of the preparation, execution and immediate aftermath of the 1944 D-Day invasion of Normandy, and a few images from 2010. (42 photos total)
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/24/AR2010052403839.html?wprss=rss_world
Before interviews with USF-I commanders or spokesmen, the contractor will have the task of talking with reporters (“pre-engagement with media outlets to determine the nature of the interview and the questions that will be asked by the media during the interview . . . to ensure that USF-I spokesman has maximum situation awareness prior to the interview”).
Patrick Baz:
It was pure luck. I had to get the right fixer. I speak Arabic and I knew how to make my way through. The thing with dictators or with dictatorships is that they make you believe that you are not allowed to. You start self-censoring. It is amazing because nobody would stop you from going to take pictures of the Republican Guards. I realized that when the fixer took me to the Ministry of Defense and the guys from the Ministry of Defense said: “Why don’t you come to us and why are you the only one? We want to show that we are defending our country.”
Link: Knowing Where to Step, Gingerly, in Iraq – Lens Blog – NYTimes.com
The author of “The Perfect Storm” spent months with American soldiers in a lethal corner of Afghanistan and details their intense lives in this original account.
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/books/review/Filkins-t.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
The best way to describe Junger’s book is to say what it is not. “War” does not attempt to explain the strategy behind the American war in Afghanistan, or the politics of Afghanistan, or even the people of the Korangal Valley. As the action unfolds, Junger makes no attempt to connect it to anything else happening inside the country.
Instead, he uses the platoon (the second of Battle Company, part of the 173rd Airborne Brigade) as a kind of laboratory to examine the human condition as it evolved under the extraordinary circumstances in which these soldiers fought and lived. And what a laboratory it is. The men of Second Platoon are young, heavily armed and crammed together inside a tiny mountain outpost supplied by helicopter and surrounded by enemies determined to get inside. Indeed, there aren’t many places on earth where such intense and bizarre circumstances could be duplicated.
Over the past year I have been emailed frequently by photographers inquiring the “how to’s” of embedding to Afghanistan, especially those who are first-timers. I wrote very similar emails like this to very experienced colleagues (such as Alan Chin, John Moore, and Teru Kuwayama, to name a few) before I embedded for the first time in 2009. To save us all a lot of trouble (those asking the questions and those having to repeat the advice) I decided to compile a document entailing a list and series of frequently asked “Q and A’s”, as well as information given to me from these colleagues in the field; without their help my embed would have been much more difficult.
Link: Advice for first-time embeds to Afghanistan | Lightstalkers
Here are the images that are currently part of (re): media at Packer Schopf Gallery (re): media-untitled_021 (re): media-untitled_020 (…
Link: http://kwortendyke.blogspot.com/2009/07/re-media.html
Although most of us have never experienced war, we are surrounded by its imagery. This project is an exploration of the way that imagery and information from movies, videogames, the newspaper, and the Internet come together to form our perception of what war is.
Tests & Reviews
via Nieman Storyboard: http://niemanstoryboard.us/2010/05/03/david-finkel-on-the-good-soldiers-the-obligation-is-to-the-story/
Tomorrow, Washington Post national enterprise editor David Finkel will receive the 2010 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize for The Good Soldiers, a bruising account of a U.S. Army battalion’s service in Iraq during 2007 and 2008. The $10,000 prize, announced by the Nieman Foundation and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, is given for excellence in nonfiction writing that exemplifies literary grace and commitment to serious research. We wanted to take advantage of the moment to talk with Finkel about his ideas on writing and the narrative approach he chose for his story.
In a very personal interview with VII The Magazine, photographer Ashley Gilbertson, opens up about the effects of war on soldiers and their families, himself, and the country.
Link: VII The Magazine
“A lot of my friends are in that video. After watching the video, I would definitely say that that is, nine times out of ten, the way things ended up. Killing was following military protocol.…
If these videos shock and revolt you, they show the reality of what war is like. If you don’t like what you see in them, it means we should be working harder towards alternatives to war
As much as in the general public, military blogs have reacted with passion to the released Wikileaks video of a 2007 Apache attack in Iraq. With more expertise than most viewers — as well as more empathy, even among those who felt the pilots acted improperly — they explored a range of issues: Were the people in the video carrying weapons? Is Wikileaks a security risk? Did the military fail in not explaining the video more fully to the media? Should journalists operate so closely to insurgents?
Link: Reaction on Military Blogs to the Wikileaks Video – At War Blog – NYTimes.com
Iraq’s elections were a photographer’s dream. Millions of people turning out to vote, long lines at the ballot boxes, and everywhere photogenically purple fingers being held aloft for camera and television lenses.
Then something bad happens, and you see the real Iraq. Or, rather, you don’t.
WAR In many ways I am surprised it has taken so long for a reel of film to make such an immediate impact on American audiences. The wikileaked military footage Collateral Murder shows us exactly wh…
via Prison Photography: http://prisonphotography.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/war-ptsd-soldiers-and-prisons/
In many ways I am surprised it has taken so long for a reel of film to make such an immediate impact on American audiences. The wikileaked military footage Collateral Murder shows us exactly what war is; war is the erasure of doubt, benefit of doubt in the face of procedure. The procedure of war is to kill.
Update, 9pm PT: The US military has issued a statement on the massacre investigation (6.52MB PDF). An update on that video released earlier today by Wikileaks, which shows US occupying forces shoot…
An update on that video released earlier today by Wikileaks, which shows US occupying forces shooting and killing civilians—including two Reuters journalists in Baghdad. Wikileaks has released additional photographs and video that provide more background.
I’d like to warn you that this footage has a relatively tight field of vision, and is quite a bit more graphic than some bombs-bursting style aerial attack video you may have seen before. Also seems worth noting that the pilots, if WikiLeaks’s annotations are correct, confused the camera held by Namir Noor-Eldeen, the 22-year-old photographer killed that day, for an rocket propelled grenade.
Link: WikiLeaks Releases Video Showing Death of Reuters Staff : CJR
Shot with his iPhone using a Polaroid film filter app, the images simulate the classic look and feel of Polaroids. The washed out colors and soft focus lend the series a dreamy, remembrance-of-things-past feel that makes the images compelling, and in some cases, beautiful. Which raised the question: is this a case of style and form obscuring content?
Link: PDNPulse: Stylized Photojournalism: Where to Draw the Line?