Category: War

Link: From the Archive: Not New, Never Easy – Lens Blog – NYTimes.com:

In two years of global warfare, America had yet to see almost any pictures of dead Americans.

Then, in September 1943, an issue of Life magazine arrived in people’s homes and at their corner newsstands. It forced them to confront a stark, full-page picture by George Strock that showed three American servicemen sprawled on Buna Beach in New Guinea; two face down, one supine; their lifelessness unmistakable even in a still photograph.

Link: Journal entries of AP photographer embedded with US Marines in Afghanistan – The Digital Journalist:

To publish or not is the question. The image is not the most technically sound, but his face is visible as are his wounds. Many factors come into play. There’s the form we signed agreeing to how and what we would cover while embedded. It says we can photograph casualties from a respectable distance and in such a way that the person is not identifiable. Then you think about the relatives and friends of Bernard. Would you, as a parent, want that image posted for all the world to see? Or even would you want to see how your son died? You’d probably want to remember him another way. Although, it was interesting to watch the Marines from his squad flip through the images from that day on my computer (they asked to see them). They did stop when they came to that moment. But none of them complained or grew angry about it. They understood that it was what it was. They understand, despite that he was their friend, it was the reality of things.