What is the role of evidence and emotion in the transference of information in atrocity images of war?

Mary Pearson

BA (Hons) Photography

PHO303 2014

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Contents Illustrations 3 Preface 7 Introduction 9 Chapter One: Myth, Meaning and Representation 13 Chapter Two: Atrocity and Suffering: The image and the image maker 28 Chapter Three: Atrocity and Suffering: The image and the spectator 42 Conclusion 55 Bibliography 60

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Illustrations

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Illustrations Preface Figure 0.1: ‘Teen photographer killed while covering civil war in Syria’ [Online] http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/photographer-killed-covering-syrian-civil-war-article-1.1555082 [26th January 2013] Chapter One Figure 1.1: Titan. ‘Flaying of Marsyas, 1575’. [Online] http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-the-flaying-of-marsyas-c1575--titian-2119240.html [3rd October 2013] Figure 1.2: Callot, J. ‘La Pendaison [The Hanging]; Les Miseres et les Malheurs de la Guerre [The Miseries and Misfortunes of War]’ [Online] http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O115422/la-pendaison-the-hanging-les-print-callot-jacques/ [18th November 2013] Figure 1.3: de Goya, F. ‘This is worse (Esto es peor), Plate 37 of The Disasters of War series’ [Online] http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/artists-a-z/G/1865/artist_name/Francisco%20de%20Goya/record_id/4820 [18th November 2013] Figure 1.4. Capa, R. ‘This is War!’ [Online] http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1648361_1419267,00.html [4th October 2013] Figure 1.5. McCullin, D. Don McCullin. London: Jonathan Cape, 2003. ‘A civilian tormented by US Marines as a Viet Cong suspect before his release, Hue 1968.’ Page 130. Figure 1.6. McCullin, D. Don McCullin. London: Jonathan Cape, 2003. ‘US Marine medic rushing a wounded two year old child from the battle, Hue 1968’ Page 131. Figure 1.7. Adams, E. General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon. 1968. [Online] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/movies/10weap.html [9th April 2009] Figure 1.8. Mirrorpix/Getty, Fires rage in Baghdad as U.S.-led coalition forces attack the city, 2003. [Online] http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1967340_1967342_1967398,00.html [27th November 2013]

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Figure 1.9. Desmazes, P. [Online] http://www.theguardian.com/world/middle-east-live/2011/oct/20/syria-libya-middle-east-unrest-live [1st December 2013] Figure 1.10. Mahmud Turkia. Libyans take pictures with their mobile phones of the body of Moamer Kadhafi is Misrata, 2011. [Online] http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/111022/muammar-gaddafi-executed-dead-killed [1st December 2013] Figure 1.11. CBS News. Stunned: Hillary Clinton is shocked as a BlackBerry delivers the news of Muammar Gaddafi's capture, 2011. [Online] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2051486/Gaddafi-dead-Hillary-Clinton-reacts-news-capture-BlackBerry.html [3rd December 2013] Chapter Two Figure 2.1: van Agtmael, P. ‘An Iraqi civilian is treated by American soldiers after being wounded by a roadside bomb, 2006’. Kamber, M. Photojournalists on War: The Untold Stories from Iraq, Austin: University of Texas Press, 2013. Page 260 Figure 2.2: McCullin, D. ‘Father and daughter after a grenade-attack on their bunker, Hue 1968’. McCullin, D. Don McCullin. London: Jonathan Cape, 2003. Page 129 Figure 2.3: Mourning a brother killed by a Taliban rocket Afghanistan, 1996 [Online] http://now.dartmouth.edu/2012/09/photojournalist-james-nachtwey-70-named-first-roth-distinguished-visiting-scholar/ [19th December 2013] Figure 2.4: Nachtwey, J. ‘Mujahedin praying while on an operation against the Soviet army Afghanistan, 1986.’ [Online] http://www.jamesnachtwey.com [17th December 2013] Figure 2.5: Delahaye, L. ‘Jenin Refugee Camp, 2002’ [Online] [14th December 2013] [14th December 2013] Figure 2.6 van Kesteren, G. ‘Car Bombs Rock Heart of Baghdad October 13th, 2003’ van Kesteren, G. Why Mister, Why? Iraq 2003-2004, Amsterdam: Artimo, 2004. Figure 2.7 van Kesteren, G. ‘Who was in charge at Abu Ghraib?’ May 9th, 2004 van Kesteren, G. Why Mister, Why? Iraq 2003-2004, Amsterdam: Artimo, 2004.

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Figure 2.8: Barakat, M. ‘Residents look for survivors at a damaged site after what activists said was an air strike from forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Takeek Al-Bab, Aleppo, 2013’ [Online] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/10534501/In-pictures-Molhem-Barakat-the-teenage-photographer-killed-In-Syria.html?frame=2773560 [27th December 2013] Figure 2.9: Barakat, M. ‘Children play table football in Old Aleppo, 2013’ [Online] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/10534501/In-pictures-Molhem-Barakat-the-teenage-photographer-killed-In-Syria.html?frame=2773557 [27th December 2013] Chapter Three Figure 3.1: [Online] http://journal.davidhempenstall.com/?attachment_id=809 [6th January 2014] Figure 3.2: [Online] http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=349_1368354271 [10th January 2014] Figure 3.3: Batchen, G. Midley, M. Miller, N.K, Prosser, J. (eds.) Picturing Atrocity: Photography in Crisis London: Reaktion Books, 2012. Page 42 Figure 3.4: [Online] http://artnet.com/magazine/features/sullivan/sullivan4-10-1.asp [6th January 2014] Figure 3.5: [Online] http://www.maisonneuvepress.com/war_crimes.htm [14th January 2014] Conclusion Figure 4.1: Contreras, N. ‘The original image taken by Narciso Contreras showing his colleague's video camera’. [Online] http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jan/23/photographer-dumped-altering-syria-image [25th January 2014]

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Preface

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Figure 0.1 The blood stained camera of photographer Molhem Barakat

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Introduction

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Introduction

‘A state of peace among men who live side by side is not a natural state,

which is rather described as a state of war’1

Wars and conflicts have been fought around the world throughout the

ages. Artists, poets, writers and photographers have sought to capture

the essence and detail of war and its effects on those touched by it. Their

endeavours are to describe, to represent and record so that we are able

to learn, understand and acquire knowledge. Images become part of

collective memory and used to record national and world events. To

understand who we are today, we need to consider our past, in the hope

that we can shape the future with wisdom. Photographs have the ability to

help facilitate that.

Photography since its inception has provided evidence of conflicts to the

‘distant spectator’. The changes in photographic technology have been

instrumental in transforming images, from Roger Fenton’s long-

exposures, giving the appearance of a slow-motion war, to professional

war- photographers who work in the heat of battle, to partisan citizen-

photographers who use mobile technology to relay images globally in

real-time with the use of the Internet. War is a timeless condition, but its

representation is ever changing.

The world is full of political tension, with conflicts, uprisings and sporadic

violence occurring simultaneously in all hemispheres. The parameter of

this study is based on the nature of atrocity and suffering in post-Vietnam

conflicts, with particular reference to the current situation in the Middle

East and Afghanistan2.

                                                                                                               1 Kant, I. ‘Perpetual Peace’ [Online] http://files.libertyfund.org/files/357/0075_Bk.pdf [4th February 2014] 2 Recent Conflicts in the Middle East and Afghanistan. 1991: First Gulf War; 2001 onwards: Afghanistan; 2003-2011: Iraq; 2011 onwards: Syrian Civil War.

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Atrocity, is defined as ‘an extremely wicked or cruel act, typically involving

physical violence or injury more usually occurring in war situations’3. It

can be used to describe a single act or a protracted set of events, but its

commonality is in its intensity to cause pain and suffering; this can be

justifiably described as acts of evil. Atrocity is the systematic act of

deliberate dehumanization of the powerful over the powerless and where

accepted codes of human behaviour cease to exist.

It is within this context that this study investigates the role of photography

in modern conflict; as a relay of information [evidence] to the distant other

and as an instrument of emotional transference.

This study traces the history of atrocity in art and demonstrates its

relationship with the imagination in the creation of artwork, both of real

and imagined events.

The methodology adopted to investigate the conveyance of meaning and

representation of the ‘voice’4 of the photographic message, I have

considered the role of the photographer, as well as the role of the

spectator.

The role of photography is to transform the representation of atrocity into

tangible evidence. The war photographers’ mission is to record with a

high degree of integrity the reality of the situation. The work of Don

McCullin, along with James Natchwey, Luc Delahaye and Geert van

Kerstern are those used to illustrate their collective ethos, mode of

practice and credo.

The role of the spectator is to ‘read’ the image created by the

photographer. The evidence within the image of atrocity becomes a visual

engagement, where the intellect succumbs to the weight of emotion. This                                                                                                                3 Macdonald, A, M. (ed) Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary London: Chambers 1972. 4 Voice meaning communication. Used by Zelizer, B. About to Die Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Chapter One.

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deeper notion of understanding is more than just a small evidentiary

segment of information, but becomes part of the unraveling of a much

wider narrative. The images are created to be interpreted, and it is the

outcome of this reflection that profoundly influences the nature of our

understanding.

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Chapter One:

Myth, Meaning & Representation.

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Myth, Meaning & Representation.

The power of words, the shock of photographs.5

Atrocity images have always existed. Many of the earliest representations

of suffering are artistic depictions of Christian martyrdom or historical

events like Goya’s ‘Third of May 1808’6, painted between 1814-5,

depicting the execution of Spaniards by French soldiers. Other depictions

of suffering are imagined events, like Titian’s 1575, ‘Flaying of Marsyas’7,

based on Greek mythology and therefore a work of the imagination: his

depiction of what might-have-been. The larger-than life canvas of

Marsyas after his defeat by Apollo depicts the systematic stripping of his

flesh from his living body.

Figure 1.1: Titian Flaying of Marsyas, 1575

                                                                                                               5 Sontag, S. Regarding the Pain of Others, London: Penguin, 2003. Page 20 6 http://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/online-gallery/on-line-gallery/obra/the-3rd-of-may-1808-in-madrid-the-executions-on-principe-pio-hill/ [10th October 2013] 7 Glover, M. Great Works: The Flaying of Marsyas (c.1575 ) Titian [Online] http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-the-flaying-of-marsyas-c1575--titian-2119240.htm [3rd October 2013]

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In 1633, Jacques Callot created a series of eighteen etchings, called ‘Les

Miséres et les Malheurs de la Guerra’ 8 [The Miseries and Misfortunes of

War] inspired by some of the gruesome events of the Thirty Years War;

works based on events, but worked by the artist through imagination and

emotion.

Figure 1.2: Jacques Callot Les Miséres et les Malheurs de la Guerra, 1633

In 1863, some thirty years after the death of Goya, a personal project of

82 prints called ‘Los Desastres de la Guerra’ 9 [Disaster of War], were

published. These works, created between 1810-20 are a graphic

reminder of the torture, rape and savagery of war; a reminder then, as

now, of the inhumanity of man when all human restraint evaporates.

                                                                                                               8 La Pendaison [The Hanging]; Les Miseres et les Malheurs de la Guerre [The Miseries and Misfortunes of War] [Online] http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O115422/la-pendaison-the-hanging-les-print-callot-jacques/ [18th November 2013] 9 This is worse (Esto es peor), Plate 37 of The Disasters of War series [Online] http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/artists-a-z/G/1865/artist_name/Francisco%20de%20Goya/record_id/4820 [18th November 2013]

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Figure 1.3: Francisco de Goya This is Worse (Esto es peor), Plate 37 of The

Disasters of War Series, 1810-1820

These artistic works, pre-date the birth of photography10, which, as a new

medium, soon developed a close relationship with death and conflict.

Photographic theorist, Susan Sontag in her collection of essays, On

Photography, states that, all photographs are ‘momento mori’11, and that

taking a photograph was to ‘participate in another person’s…mortality…’,

thereby, ‘all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt’12. For Sontag

realized that with each depress of the shutter, the image captured within

that fraction of a second was immortalized. This immortalization alludes

to the images relationship with death and the term capture has war-like

overtones. We often think of death only in terms of the end-of-life, but it

has more to do with ‘loss’. Loss comes in many forms, but it is the loss of

time [it moves on], that Sontag refers to when she writes, ‘time’s endless

melt’.

                                                                                                               10 Photography was invented by Niépce in 1826 in France. 11 Sontag, S. On Photography, London: Penguin, 1977. Page 15. 12 Sontag, S. On Photography, London: Penguin, 1977. Page 15.  

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Roland Barthes, in Camera Lucida, refers to loss in the words ‘ça a été’13,

often translated as ‘that has been’, but the more literal translation is ‘it

was’. His interest was aroused by his grief when his beloved mother died,

and he was searching for an image that reminded him of her essence;

that undeniable truth of reality and existence. These thoughts and those

of Sontag are interwoven in the notion of captured memory and moments,

recording them for eternity.

The content of all images represents what-is-there, and so becomes

evidence of things seen, but images also act as a trigger for imagination,

emotion and cultural interpretations, beyond that which is merely seen.

We bring to an image our own knowledge systems, which add more than

is merely seen, as Roland Barthes did when finding the Winter Garden

image of his mother14.

He also discerned that each picture had the possibility to

‘sting…cut…prick…bruise’15. It was the ‘punctum’ or ‘trauma’ that

arrested the viewer; held their attention and created an emotional

connection that could be so powerful that it was deemed to hurt. Even

images with no portrayal of violence are capable, according to Barthes, of

wounding the viewer. How much more so, when the evidence in the

image is one of gratuitous violence and where pain and suffering are

central to the images’ intent. Theorists were beginning to note a

correlation between photographic practice and meaning, and their

terminology alluded to concepts of mortality, time, memory, trauma and

pain.

Within fifteen years of its invention, governments perceived the new

mediums potential to record as evidence battles fought, wars won and to

bolster public support for wars overseas; one might term it propaganda.

                                                                                                               13 Barthes, R. Camera Lucida, London: Vantage Books, 2000. Page 115. 14 Barthes, R. Camera Lucida, London: Vantage Books, 2000. Page 69.  15 Barthes, R. Camera Lucida, London: Vantage Books, 2000. Page 27.

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The British Government dispatched Roger Fenton16 in 1855 to the

Crimea to dispel reports of difficulties and hardship described by ‘The

Times’ correspondent, William Howard Russell. Likewise, President

Lincoln invited Mathew Brady17, a photographer he knew well to record

the Unionist fight against the Confederates in the American Civil War.

Photography was used both as evidence and support for armed

struggles.

These early conflict images brought a new visual reality of battlefield life,

and although long exposure-time severely restricted the type of images

taken; both conflicts were well documented. The images showed a reality

of sorts; the nearest action images were ‘after the event’, and portrayed

little of the agony of conflict. Even so, some of Fenton’s images were

deemed too graphic for Victorian sensitivities, and a photographic album

of the war [‘Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War’]18 failed to ignite

American readership. The cumbersome cameras that recorded

landscapes, staged images of soldiers in camp or officers on horseback

did little to convey its true reality, resembling alfresco portraits, so giving a

disproportionate view of war.

It was the development of the lightweight 35mm camera that

revolutionized war photography. With this highly flexible camera,

photographers could follow and capture split-second action. Robert Capa,

shadowed the Republican fighters with flair, capturing their heroic

struggle in the Spanish Civil War [1936-39]. A recently discovered

recording of Robert Capa speaking in America in 1947 said of the famous

image of the ‘Falling Republican Soldier’ taken in September 1936 was a

chance shot where the depress of the shutter caught the moment of

death. It became the benchmark for war photography.

                                                                                                               16 Roger Fenton: 1819-1869. Considered to be the first war photographer, spent three months in Crimea in 1855. 17 Mathew Brady: 1822-1896. The first photographer, with his colleagues O’Sullivan and Gardner, to photograph an entire conflict. 1861-1865. 18 Photographic Sketch Book of Civil War, a collection of images by Andrew Gardner, published in 1866 after American Civil War and was not a commercial success.

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‘’I just kind of put my camera above my head and didn’t even look. I

clicked a picture when he moved over the trench and that was all”19.

Figure 1.4. Robert Capa Falling Republican Solider, 1936

Vietnam was a dark theatre of war: a parallel universe in unfamiliar

terrain, fighting an ideological conflict that appeared largely unwinnable.

Don McCullin’s images, particularly those of the 1968 Tet Offensive

created a bolder, stronger and more savage representation of war. His

survival of those intense eleven days changed him, saying: ‘...it taught me

a new appreciation of how terrible war can be. It certainly made me

ashamed of what human beings are capable of doing to each other’20.

His intent was to convey the darkness created by war, and reflect how it

alters man’s moral code. His images reflect both realism and surrealism.

The images were intended, ‘…to remain engraved on the minds of all

who see it…’21

                                                                                                               19 Brooks, R. ‘Recording reveals truth of war photo’ The Sunday Times, 27th October 2013. Page 7. 20 McCullin, D. with Chester, L. Unreasonable Behaviour: An Autobiography, London: Jonathan Cape, 1990. Page 112. 21 McCullin, D. with Chester, L. Unreasonable Behaviour: An Autobiography, London: Jonathan Cape, 1990. Page 124.  

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Figure 1.5. Don McCullin A civilian tormented by US Marines as a Viet Cong

suspect before his release, Hue 1968

John Berger wrote in Photographs of Agony in 1972, at a time when the

American public were become hostile to the protracted conflict, spoke of

McCullin’s images, saying, ‘…they bring us up short…we are seized by

them…suffering engulfs us...’ and…we are filled with either despair or

indignation.’22

McCullin’s images are some of the most graphic portraits of suffering

taken in war; revealing the dehumanizing, objectifying and degradation of

suspects and prisoners by the military who were largely tired of fighting a

guerrilla war in a foreign land. The scant regard for human life and dignity

is etched into his images, interspersed with isolated moment of

tenderness, but largely his oeuvre represents appalling atrocity and

suffering.                                                                                                                22 Berger, J. ‘Photographs of Agony’ In Berger, J. About Looking, New York: Pantheon Books, 1980. Page 38.

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Figure 1.6. Don McCullin US Marine medic rushing a wounded two year old child

from the battle, Hue 1968

Vietnam was a visual war and became pivotal to our understanding of the

conflict and allowed images to gain unprecedented and unlimited visual

power, with the ability to sway public opinion. Susan Moeller says that ‘…

more than any other compilation of images from Vietnam, the

photos…challenged the conduct of the war…’23. Even though it was the

first ‘film war’, it was the still images that arrested attention and they

galvanized collective memory. The photograph became the witness to

atrocity and suffering and created a new way of seeing, of understanding,

and creating opinion. The image had found its voice.

A photograph by Eddie Adams reveals this changed reality: it depicts the

public execution by General Loam of a bound Vietcong prisoner in

Saigon in 1968. The officer stands with outstretched arm with the ‘about-

to-die’ horror etched on the prisoners face. This summary execution

shocked the world. The image showed ‘what’ happened, but the image

does not explain ‘why’ it happened. The ‘what’ and the ‘why’ are gathered

                                                                                                               23  Zelier, B. About To Die, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Page 243

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from different sources – one from the visual and the other from its

context. This image, according to Eddie Adams is not what it seems, and

laments that,

‘The General killed the Viet Cong; I killed the General with my camera.’24

It proves that the visual, without adequate contextual information can lead

to misinterpretation and misrepresentation.

Figure 1.7. Eddie Adams. General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong

prisoner in Saigon. 1968

Adams writes

‘…He [General Loam] took a pistol out of his holster and raised it. I

had no idea he would shoot. It was common to hold a pistol to the

head of prisoners during questioning. … The man just pulled a

pistol out of his holster, raised it to the VC’s head and shot him in

the temple. I made a picture at the same time…’25

                                                                                                               24  Lee, N. ‘A Dark Glimpse From Eddie Adams’s Camera’ [Online] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/movies/10weap.html [9th April 2009]  25 Corona, L. ‘The Story Behind the Man Who Was Killed in the Famous “Saigon Execution” Photo.’ [online] http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/03/the-story-behind-the-man-who-was-killed-in-the-famous-saigon-execution-photo/ [1st December 2013]

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Susan Sontag suggests that the about-to-die images are ‘…among the

most celebrated and often reproduced of war images.’26 The use of the

word ‘celebrated’ seems inappropriate, but it feeds into the juxtaposition

between fascination and revulsion, where we simultaneous need to see

but do not want to acknowledge.

The tension between truth and reality is fundamental to our

understanding of the myth, meaning and representation of images of

suffering and atrocity. Photography had evolved from Fenton and Brady’s

images that lacked urgency, to Capa’s grass-roots images, showing

heroic struggles, but Vietnam portrayed the vilest of war theatres. The

camera was there to record; and now acts as evidence, information and

knowledge to our corporate understanding of the conflicts history. It also

is an emotional reference point where we measure our humanity to wars

inhumanity.

Today we live in a different age, with global telecommunications and

digital technologies creating unprecedented opportunities to the manner

in which we view conflict images. Twenty-four hour news, personal digital

cameras and camera-phones allow a continuous stream of images in

real-time.

This century has been dominated by a techno-war waged not entirely

against a particular nation, but against ‘terror’27, viewed as a clear and

present danger to western national interests. The conflicts within the Arab

world have pitted ideological beliefs of faith and governance where

cultural and religious philosophies have collided.

                                                                                                               26 Sontag, S. Regarding the Pain of Others, London: Penguin, 2003. Page 53 27 ‘War on Terrorism’ [Online] http://www.globalpolicy.org/war-on-terrorism.html [10th October 2013] After the attack on 11th September 2001, the Bush Administration declared on 8th October 2001 a worldwide ‘War on Terror’ involving open and covert military operation, new security legislation, efforts to block the financing on terrorism.

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Western forces entered Iraq in 200328, after a highly visible ‘shock and

awe’29 bombardment of Baghdad that had the appearance of a well-

orchestrated firework display. The systematic destruction of Baghdad was

viewed as an act of atrocity in itself. All news channels and print media

had similar pictures, as journalists were in one place, viewing the event,

from the same vantage point.

Figure 1.8. Mirrorpix/Getty. Fires rage in Baghdad as U.S.-led coalition forces

attack the city, 2003 The campaign was short, but in the resultant power vacuum, ultra

conservative insurgents seized control of huge swathes of territory. The

collation forces began a new war of occupation and suppression against

                                                                                                               28 Logan, J. ‘Last U.S. troops leave Iraq, ending war’ [Online] http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/18/us-iraq-withdrawal-idUSTRE7BH03320111218 [30th November 2013] Western forces entered Iraq on 20th March 2003 and hostilities ended on 1st May 2003, although the last US troops left Iraq on 18th December 2011, leaving a fragile democracy and political uncertainty. 29 Wade, J. and Ullman, H.K. Shock and Awe, Charleston: BiblioLife, 2008. To affect the will, perception and understanding of the adversary to fight or respond to our strategic policy ends through imposing a regime of Shock and Awe.

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some of the fiercest, battle-harden warriors, who fought as radical

Islamists, where death in battle was deemed virtuous and glorious.

The military imposed severe restrictions photographer’s movements

during both Gulf Wars, [1991 & 2003]. They provided photographic

evidence, and freelance photographers made private arrangements in the

pursuit of images in a hostile environment.

The Gulf Wars became a real-life video game, as Western-style popular

culture-simulating reality with military strikes orchestrated thousands of

miles away with laser-guided bombs. Real casualties and real suffering at

a physical distance separated actions from consequences.

Citizen-journalism increasingly became the authentic voice of war with

camera phones and social media sites like Twitter, Facebook & YouTube

disseminating information from isolated locations. It was citizen journalists

who recorded the capture, beating and death of Colonel Gadaffi. In

October 2011, Colonel Gaddafi was found in hiding in Sirte, and upon his

capture, he was mobbed, brutalized and shot.

This out-of-focus image [Figure 1.9] with camera metadata in view, was

circulated and published worldwide. It appears as a still from a video-clip

as it portrays the inhuman demise of the Libyan President. It displays a

brutality at its most gruesome. The value of its content outweighs any

consideration of composition or taste, as atrocity images became

repugnant Technicolor representation of savagery.

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Figure 1.9. Photograph: Philippe Desmazes, 2011

Figure 1.10 was taken by an eyewitness and shows a number of people

with camera-phones recording this grisly historic event, making it a

‘trophy-image’30. Where this images taken for their historical significance,

or as a certification of presence or for their macabre fascination?

Figure 1.10. Mahmud Turkia. Libyans take pictures with their mobile phones of the

body of Moamer Kadhafi is Misrata, 2011

                                                                                                               30 Frederick,J. ‘The Trophy Shot’ [Online] http://lightbox.time.com/2011/04/01/the-trophy-shot/#1 [5th December 2013]

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Any ‘significant’ image is taken for an audience, and Figure 1.11 shows

the moment when Hillary Clinton, American Secretary of State at the time

of the Arab Spring, received images of the brutalization of Colonel Gadaffi

on her Blackberry.

Figure 1.11 CBS News. Stunned: Hillary Clinton is shocked as a BlackBerry

delivers the news of Muammar Gaddafi's capture, 2011

War images, like others are seen as a testament to truth, even in this age

of digital manipulation, we tend to believe what we see. The war

photographer sees at first-hand unimaginable sights at great personal

risk.

The next chapter investigates atrocity images from the photographers’

perspective; by examining their work, their words and their place in

history, it may aid our perceptions about our world, our society and

ourselves. Appalling events are filmed, so we know they exist and we

should be courageous enough to view them. It is only by examination we

can begin to understand, even if they pose more questions than provide

answers.

  28  

Chapter Two:

Atrocity and suffering: the image and the image-maker.

  29  

Atrocity and suffering: the image and the image-maker.

“I was, what I always tried to be, an independent witness –

though not an unemotional one’.31

Photographers are considered ‘silent witnesses’32 with the image acting

as a bridge between their seeing and our viewing; revealing what-is-

happening as well as, this-did-happen. They see the world differently to

press-journalists; indeed they use a different language. Whilst … ‘words

alter, words add, words subtract’33… the photographer uses the camera

to record a vision, to reflect moments that becomes part of our collective

memory. The function of a war photographer is in part ‘… to explain the

world to the world’ …34.

Photographers are renowned as ‘…most careful observers…endowed

with… searching and sensitive eyes’35; to ignore their visual language is

to disregard their significant perspective of the horrors they dared to

witness.

Within the documentary framework of war photography the truth and

integrity of a photographers’ work is essential; their ethics come from

within. Wars are fought where rules are broken and with the blurring of

moral boundaries, their work requires to be of the highest moral and

ethical standard. During war, conventional systems of civilized behaviour

are suspended adding to the importance of their integrity.

                                                                                                               31 McCullin, D. with Chester, L. Unreasonable Behaviour: An Autobiography, London: Jonathan Cape, 1990. Page 112. 32 Kamber, M. Photojournalists on War: The Untold Stories from Iraq, Austin: University of Texas Press, 2013. Foreward. 33 Sontag, S. ‘Regarding the Torture of Others’ [Online] http://www.european-mediaculture.org/fileadmin/bibliothek/english/sontag_torture/sontag_torture.pdf [1st December 2013] 34 Huffman, A. Here I am: The Story of Tim Hetherington, London: Grove Press, 2013. Page 9. 35 Huffman, A. Here I am: The Story of Tim Hetherington, London: Grove Press, 2013. Page 9.  

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To begin to understand the significance of atrocity images, it is necessary

to view the work of photographers such as Don McCullin, James

Natchwey, Luc Delahaye, Geert van Kesteren and others, along with

citizen-journalists [local witnesses] whose images are transmitted via

social media sites.

The Vietnam War was pivotal to changes in modern war coverage. Don

McCullin found that the unfettered access they had amongst the

American forces as embeds36 gave opportunities to shoot battle

conditions, military personnel and civilians with impunity. Photo-

journalists now often enter deep into hostile territory to cover events so

that the reality of conflict is revealed. This puts them in danger.

Photographers movements and coverage are controlled by the military, in

part for their safety and in the field no longer have war-zone work-

privilege. Twenty-nine journalists/photographers have been killed in

Syria’s on-going civil war in 201337. There are no codes that protect the

modern war photographer who venture into hot-zones; their presence is

viewed with suspicion and their cameras are seen as weapons of

propaganda. Tim Hetherington [1970-2011] lost his life on assignment in

Misurata, Libya, when hit by a mortar whilst covering the Arab Spring in

April 2011.

Photographers work within an ever-present contradictory tension of

objectivity and subjectivity. Professionalism demands, as embodied in

Magnum Charter is that they are objective observers, to record what they

see, ‘…as fair-minded witnesses free of… prejudices’38. However,

photographers when confronted with the worst excesses of human pain,                                                                                                                36 Definition: Embedded: a media remaining with a unit on an extended basis, perhaps a period of weeks or even months. Public Affairs Guidance on Embedding Media during possible future operations/deployments in US Central Command Area of Responsibility. 3rd February 2003. 37 60 journalists abducted in 2013: 30 still missing. 63 killed covering Syria conflict to date. 29 killed in 2013. 75% in crossfire (during battles). These figures are for media activists and citizen journalists. Committee to Protect Journalists. Robson, M. and Stern, J. ‘Behind the Numbers: Researching Syria’s Killed Journalists’ [Online] http://www.cpj.org/blog/2013/12/behind-the-numbers-researching-syrias-killed-journ.php [4th December 2013] 38 Sontag, S. Regarding the Pain of Others, London: Penguin, 2003. Page 31.

  31  

suffering and death, become, by virtue of their humanity, involved in the

situation, and this creates a level of subjectivity. The images are a

combination of an emotional response within objective reporting, giving

what Sontag calls a ‘privileged moment’39.

Photographers have an obsession borne out of their passion that drives

them to continue their witness of the very worst of human behaviour, this

is the reason they go to war. Don McCullin [1935- ] when in Vietnam

became ‘ashamed of what humans were capable of doing to one

another’40; James Natchwey [1948- ] channelled his energy in order to

‘clarify his vision not cloud it’41. Luc Delahaye [1962- ] speaks of his

images being, ‘the trace of the photographers experience, of his essential

and contingent presence,’42 whilst an unknown citizen-journalist with his

camera phone in the current civil war in Syria claims, ‘I’m not a

professional. I’m just filling in for other people who should be here but

aren’t’.43

According to Allan Sekula, ‘The meaning of photograph…is…subject to

cultural definition’44, however, the suffering that war photographers have

dared to witness is so graphic, that whatever the cultural interpretation or

geo-political differences, whoever perpetrates ‘atrocity’ commits a crime

against humanity. The images mediate horrors to the world, ‘…even

though most surely, we don’t want them.45 Their role is not to take sides,

but it is to convey meaning, thus becoming the modern equivalent of war

poets like Wilfred Owen, [1893-1918], who wrote before returning to the

                                                                                                               39 Sontag, S. On Photography, London: Penguin, 1971. 40 McCullin, D. with Chester, L. Unreasonable Behaviour: An Autobiography, London: Jonathan Cape, 1990. Page 112. 41 Nachtwey, J. ‘My Wish: Let my Photographs Bear Witness’ TED, March 2007. Internet Video, 21 minutes 30 seconds. 42 Delahaye, L. Luc Delahaye 2006 2010, Göttingen: Steidl, 2011. Conversation. 43 Assir, S. ‘Syria Online: using the Internet to cover a war’ [Online] http://blogs.afp.com/correspondent/?post/Syria-online%3A-using-the-Internet-to-cover-a-war [14th December 2013] 44 Burgin, V. Thinking Photography, London: McMillan Press, 1982. Page 85 45 Linfield, S. The Cruel Radiance: Photography and Political Violence, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. Page 231.

  32  

trenches, ‘All a poet can do today is warn. That is why the true poet must

be truthful’46.

The intensity of atrocity images appears to be at its most powerful when

they are of an individual. The photographer bridges and connects through

his camera lens the suffering of people to a wider audience. He uses his

lens to mirror a savage world and transforms it into a window through

which we gaze.

Figure 2.1: Peter van Agtmael An Iraqi civilian is treated by American soldiers

after being wounded by a roadside bomb, 2006

The facial expressions and the arresting gaze of war victims, draws the

photographer, and by extension us into their world of grief and suffering.

There occurs the transference of atrocity into ‘our’ world, and into ‘our’

lives; the suffering enters ‘our’ own personal space. When that happens,

the voice of the voiceless is heard.

Don McCullin in Vietnam made dark, brooding and intense images

created by traditional darkroom techniques. He created intense feeling

                                                                                                               46 Owen, W. [Online] http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/Owena.html#Shock_of_war [15th December 2013]

  33  

and atmosphere of scenes of battle and survivors. He witnessed the

evaporation of human dignity, and where human life was held in

contempt. The dead are treated with disrespect, as were the cries of the

living. McCullin was traumatized by the events in Vietnam, and declared,

‘The photographs must remain engraved on the minds of all who see it’47.

The word ‘engraved’, evokes the permanency of a gravestone memorial.

His images were at the time some of the most powerful ever shot, and

indeed they were emotionally laden, somber and deathly, and if

‘engraved on the mind’ would remain as an irrefutable reminder of what

had happened.

Figure 2.2: Don McCullin Father and daughter after a grenade-attack on their bunker, Hue 1968

                                                                                                               47 McCullin, D. with Chester, L. Unreasonable Behaviour: An Autobiography, London: Jonathan Cape, 1990. Page 124.  

  34  

McCullin believed that seeing; real seeing had nothing to do with

photography, but is the commitment of the photographer to his subject

and the relationship his image relays to the viewer. The role of the image

is therefore two fold: intellectual and emotional. The intellectual gives

evidence of a particular conflict situation, whilst the emotional conveys

the photographers’ feelings and so offers an invitation for the viewer to

also engage emotionally. This duality of purpose is a recurrent theme with

all conflict photographers.

James Natchwey was heavily influenced by the work of Don McCullin

who realized the transforming power of war photography, and began his

career with the intention of covering conflicts around the world.

This new generation transformed war images of ugliness and tragedy into

a new aesthetic; conveying in some, a calm serenity bordering on the

divine. Although some feel his work is more ‘art’ than documentary; a

criticism he refutes by saying that ‘it is not art, but a form of

communication’48. He sees the world in a unique way: he works with

speed, often in silence but with clarity of purpose. The ‘beauty’ displayed

within the images derives from his genuine respect for those he

photographs. His subjects are not objects; and his desire to acquire the

best image he can does not belittle the ugliness and horror of the atrocity

he witnesses, but transforms what he has witnessed to the viewers best

instincts.

                                                                                                               48 War Photographer. Film. Dir. Christian Frei. First Run Features, 2001.

  35  

Figure 2.3: James Nachtwey Mourning a brother killed by a Taliban rocket

Afghanistan, 1996

Those who are critical of his aesthetics, miss the essential point of his

work. Even though his subjects have lost their homes, families, with lives

torn apart by violence, each person is assured of dignity and his respect.

His clear, composed and dynamic images draws what David Rieff calls,

…’a moral line in the sand … that is based on suffering alone’49. Action-

images have intensity of movement and drama, but by recording quiet

moments in the maelstrom of war, allow his narrative to speak. Only

beautiful images can do that. He finds order and beauty in disorder and

ugliness and by creating juxtaposition, creates a visual aesthetic that is

spellbinding. These images ‘arrest’ the viewer as much as a bloodied

corpse.

                                                                                                               49Reiff, D. ‘The Quality of Mercy’ [Online] http://articles.latimes.com/2000/mar/19/books/bk-10257 [19th December2013]

  36  

Figure 2.4: James Nachtwey Mujahedin praying while on an operation against the

Soviet army Afghanistan, 1986.

James Natchwey is a consummate ‘press photographer’ rather than a

‘gallery photographer’, although his work has been shown around the

world. His published work for Time Magazine affords wide coverage for

his work, even in a world that can suffer from compassion fatigue. His

purpose is to make people aware, for with awareness comes an

opportunity to offer the stories of those who have suffered atrocity to the

world, aiming the images to the viewer’s best instincts. His role is to

mediate their suffering.

French Photographer Luc Delahaye [1962- ], has moved from journalism

to gallery-format images; large canvas photographs reminiscent of

European landscape paintings. His work testifies to a shift in subject

matter accepted in galleries. The images often reveal ‘atrocity at a

distance’ as depicted by the Jenin Refugee Camp that was bulldozed by

Israeli forces in 200250.                                                                                                                50 Jenin Refugee Camp was entered on April 2nd 2002 during the Second Intifada. The Battle of Jenin [2-11 April 2002] took place in Jenin Refugee Camp. Israeli Defense Force entered the camp, met with resistance and a battle ensued. The Israeli forces used armored bulldozers that destroyed or rendered uninhabitable 350 homes: about 10% of the camp. 150 people died and many more wounded on both sides.

  37  

Figure 2.5: Luc Delahaye Jenin Refugee Camp, 2002

This image breaks the traditional view of atrocity imaging. Here the

atrocity appears to be geographical: no single person is singled out as a

victim, but an area. The atrocity is ‘expansive’. The atrocity is visible but

at a distance, echoing the dislocation that the viewers often feel to

dreadful events occurring to ‘others’. It highlights the tension that exists

between ‘the sufferer’ and ‘the distant observer’.

The gallery experience allows for a more thoughtful interpretation,

allowing for reflection and critical thinking.

It is hard to comprehend how atrocity and pain can be transformed into

art. However, each image is a testament to suffering, and so elevates it to

the sacred. Pain is transformed by the photographer who, as Natchwey

says ‘If I’m feeling outrage, grief, disbelief, sympathy, that gets

channelled through me and into my pictures and hopefully transmitted to

the viewer’51.

                                                                                                               51 ‘A Conversation with James Nachtwey’ [Online] http://www.pbs.org/newshour/gergen/jan-june00/nachtwey_5-16.html [14th December 2013]

  38  

The Dutch photographer, Geert van Kesteren [1966 - ], developed a

different approach after he found many of his images were not being

published. He felt that the ‘real’ story of what he had witnessed in Iraq

during 2003-4 was not being told. The result was ‘Why Mister. Why?’52, a

photo-book brimming with chaotic images that testify to atrocity, violence

and tension of a fractured nation gripped by fear and revenge. The book

portrays a people coming to terms with numerous atrocities: those

perpetrated by their former leader, those by radical insurgents and those

created by their liberators. The work is a departure from traditional press

photography and reportage, testifying to a personal odyssey, that poses

more questions than answers. The photographs graphical display, by

their weight and number, the difficulties when two worlds collide: ‘them’

and ‘us’ separated by distance, culture, ideology, faith, governance and

tradition. The work says “this is what I saw, I invite you to look”.

Figure 2.6: Geert van Kestern Car Bombs Rock Heart of Baghdad October 13th,

2003

                                                                                                               52 The title of the book Why Mister, Why’ derived from the children of Iraq who always asked this question wherever he travelled.  

  39  

Figure 2.7: Geert van Kestern Who was in charge at Abu Ghraib? May 9th, 2004

The professional photographer is now challenged by a new phenomenon,

that of the amateur citizen-photographer, who, armed with a camera

phone or digital camera reveals a new kind of image from areas where

foreign photojournalists are unable to access. These are not so much

photographers but picture-takers. Social Media, has been used

successfully to fight a communications battle: disseminating ‘their’ story to

a wider audience to reveal ‘their’ reality. Street fighters and civilians may

at times take some hasty, out-of-focus or poorly composed images but

their work displays a different perspective. Images emerging from these

no-go areas show the chaos and indiscriminate nature of killing, in an

urban guerilla war where territory is won and lost, building-by-building.

Images when uploaded via the Internet have global immediacy, although

sometimes without verification. Images authenticated by Reuters or

Associated Press [AP] or Agence France-Presse [AFP] have immediate

credibility.

  40  

Some agencies employ the use of ‘stringers’53, locals who have access to

prohibitive areas. Reuters employed Molhen Barakat54, an 18 year old

from Aleppo, who between May and December 2013, supplied images to

the agency via the Internet. This allowed the sorrows of life in the

besieged city to be revealed to the world, via a reputable news agency.

Figure 2.8: Molhem Barakat Residents look for survivors at a damaged site after what activists said was an air strike from forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar

al-Assad in Takeek Al-Bab, Aleppo, 2013

Figure 2.9: Molhem Barakat Children play table football in Old Aleppo, 2013                                                                                                                53 Stringer: A freelance journalist or photographer. 54 Melhen Barakat – An 18 year old stringer employed by Reuters from May to December 2013. Reuters paid him $100 a day for 10 images depicting life in Aleppo, Syria. He died on December 20th 2013, with his brother, a member of the Free Syrian Army whilst photographing at Kindi Hospital, the scene of a fierce battle between rebel and government forces.

  41  

Life even has its normal moments: and by virtue of verifiable knowledge,

Figure 2.9, taken in Aleppo shows boys playing a western-style game,

evoking the twin emotions of joy and sadness. Joy that these children

have a moment to play and sadness of life within their besieged city with

its uncertain future. This is an atrocity image by default.

The work of citizen-journalists extends the boundaries of war

photography in a new direction. In difficult war zones like the Middle East

where fundamental ideological differences separate photographers and

their subject; indigenous photographers are able to work with greater

flexibility. Western photographers could be termed ‘war tourists’ with a

desire to record evidence and truth, but the citizen photographer has a

impassioned viewpoint, stating these are my people and this is what is

happening to us. The subjectivity of the citizen-photographer shows a

‘this-is-how-it-really-is’ image, where the worst excesses of violent actions

are shown. There is no military or editorial censorship; the images are as

raw as they can be. This type of authenticity cuts deep because the

images truly come from the heart.

The photographer offers an opportunity. As Luc Delahaye says, ‘The

image is only responsible for giving us the responsibility to look…. In its

openness to meaning, it can only be what the viewer makes of it’.55

                                                                                                               55 Delahaye, L. Luc Delahaye 2006 2010, Göttingen: Steidl, 2011.

  42  

Chapter Three:

Atrocity and Suffering: the image and the spectator.

  43  

Atrocity and Suffering: the image and the spectator.

‘Men are not moved by things, but by the views they take of them’56

An image is not ‘total’ reality for it is impossible to completely reproduce

every sensory and emotional experience encapsulated in a scene or

event seen by the lens. Absolute reality cannot be achieved. Photographs

can only hope to be a representation of reality, mediated by the image-

taker through the camera lens to a distant audience. ‘The image’, as Luc

Delahaye says, ‘offers an opportunity to look’57. What is important is that

the viewer not only looks, but also emotionally and imaginatively connects

with the image. The viewing of conflict images of suffering and atrocity

should not be just ‘looking’ but become part of a deeper understanding

beyond the ‘what’ and ‘when’ into the ‘how’ and ‘why’, thereby creating a

platform for debate and possible change.

A photograph places 3D vision onto a 2D surface, which, created by

chemicals or machine give a simulacrum of what was seen. The

photographs taken in conflict conditions are surrounded with unique

sensory stimuli within an emotional framework of fear, terror and danger.

Experiencing atrocity situations elevates emotional responses to a

heightened intensity, where the consequence of fierce fighting results is

cruelty and brutality.

In recent years images of atrocity have been predominantly taken in the

Global South and East58, and viewed by audiences, mainly in the Global

North and West59. Most recent large-scale conflicts involving American

and European deployment have occurred in the vicinity of the Persian

                                                                                                               56 [Online] http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/browse-Epictetus.html [6th January 2014] 57 Delayahe, L. 2006-2010 Göttingen: Steidl, 2011. 58 Global South has three-quarters of the worlds population and one quarter of the worlds income. Global North/South was first hypothesized by Willy Brandt in 1980 concerning economic development. The Brandt report warned of global insecurity. It was updated in 2001, by James Quilligan who redefined it as ‘Brandt Equation’. 59 Global north is one-quarter of worlds population and three quarters of the worlds income.  

  44  

Gulf and in Afghanistan. These regions are separated by more than

geographical distance; the latter is considered the ‘distant other’60 in

which culture, tradition, ethnicity and religious practices, as well as

economies and governance are of a different character.

Those who witness images of brutality of that ‘distant other’ view the

commonality of suffering within a different cultural tradition. This is

‘cultural translation’61, where for example, Islamic regions operating strict

adherence to Sharia Law62, the severing of a hand is viewed as a just

punishment for theft63. This would be considered a harsh and

unacceptable punishment in western societies so revealing differences of

cultural norms.

The distinction between ‘those who suffer’ and ‘those who do not’ is

crucial to the understanding of the relationship between the situation

witnessed and photographed and the spectator.

Modern communication has given unparalleled evidence of a suffering

world. This visual evidence has reduced the physical and emotional

distance between victim and viewer, creating as Hannah Arendt called

the ‘spectacle of suffering’64. This distance between the sufferer and

spectator is reduced by images [still or moving], and the purpose of the

image-maker is to record in order to create a visual connection. This

visual connection enables a communication exchange to take place. The

                                                                                                               60 Chouliaraki, L. ‘Journalism and the Visual Politics of War and Conflict’ [Online] http://www.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/POLIS/Files/visualpolitics.pdf [15th January 2014] Distant Other: those we do not know, but only see in pictures. 61 Campbell, D. ‘Horrific Blindness: Images of Death in Contemporary Media’ Journal for Cultural Research’ Volume 8 Number 1, January 2004 62 ‘What is Sharia Law?’ [Online] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1578018/What-is-sharia-law.html [10th January 2014] Sharia Law is a system of laws within the Islamic Faith. The law [its justice and punishment] is derived from the words and conduct of the Prophet Muhammad. Islamic Nations operate Sharia law with varying degrees of rigidity. 63 ‘The Ruling on Theft in Islam’ [Online] http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/index.php?id=136791&page=articles [13th January 2014] The thief, the male and the female, amputate their hands in recompense for what they earned [ie committed] as a deterrent. [Punishment from Allah] Quran 5:38 64 ‘Spectator of Suffering’ A term created by Hannah Arendt [1906-1975] to describe the relationship between the sufferer and the viewer.  

  45  

visual element of this exchange enables the release of not just

information, but generates an emotional engagement that has the

capacity to create debate and possibly change. Awareness is

fundamental to this process and it is for this reason that many

photographers challenge themselves physically and emotionally to reveal

these images to the unknowing audience.

In ‘Theory of Moral Sentiments’, Adam Smith in 1790, wrote, ‘our

sympathy with pain, … falls greatly short of what is naturally felt by the

sufferer’65. Although we do not feel the physical pain, we are able to use

our imagination to emotionally connect with the suffering.

To be an honest mediation between victim and viewer, there needs to be

a high level of image veracity. In a world of digital manipulation we may

not have as much trust in images, but we do gain a trust in a

photographer and their personal ethical/moral stance. The work of

McCullin, Natchwey, van Kerstern, are photographers regarded for their

integrity of purpose. For truth to be honoured, the public needs to trust

the images authority, accuracy and authenticity. It is the photographer

rather than the photograph that holds the key to the image-trust

relationship. Jerry Thompson argues that, ‘ …truth now refers, not to the

accurate representation of the object seen, but rather, to the accurate

representation of the artists response to the object or view’66. This is

essential in order that the cogency of their images is an honourable

foundation for public awareness. Formations of opinions to be of value

have to be based on truth and honesty.

The depiction of, and the mediation of images of suffering and atrocity

have changed significantly in recent years. McCullin in Vietnam used

35mm black and white film to record the brutality of that war. There is no

glory, just raw evidence. Many images were never published, as they                                                                                                                65 Smith, A. ‘The Theory of Moral Sentiment’ [Online] http://www.ibiblio.org/ml/libri/s/SmithA_MoralSentiments_p.pdf [10th November 2013] 66 Thompson, J.L. ‘Truth and Photography’ Yale Review Number 90, January 2002, pp25-53    

  46  

were deemed too graphic, as editors operated an in-house censorship to

protect their readership and circulation figures. McCullin worked for the

Sunday Times throughout the Vietnam and he knew that many images

would have shocking for the public.

Figure 3.1 is one of McCullin’s ‘unpublished’ images, showing two

Vietcong soldiers dead in an open pit. It is a gruesome sight in black and

white: one wonders at the impact had it been colour?

Two South Vietnamese soldiers who viewed this sight as McCullin took

the picture said, ‘Good job, it’s the enemy’67, revealing a lack of sympathy

and even delight at the sight of dead soldiers.

Figure 3.1 Don McCullin Two Soliders in a Pit, Vietnam 1968

                                                                                                               67 [Online] http://journal.davidhempenstall.com/?p=808 [28th December 2013] ‘I found a pit with dead men in it, one of them had his foot blown off. He had tried to bandage it. They stayed there and died together as if they’d been placed in a bed and were quite peacefully sleeping side by side. Other Vietnamese and Cambodian soliders put handkerchiefs over their face, looked in the pit and looked back smiling. ‘Good job, it’s the enemy’. I put my camera to my face and photographed. These are my two lovers in repose, this is my family, it’s the same face. Its no different from Dachau and Auschwitz.’ Don McCullin, 1968.

  47  

Atrocity is revealed in this image in a number of ways: the death of two

young men: the ignominy of their resting place and indifference to death.

This example reveals how different people react differently to a situation,

and, by association, the same can be said of reactions to an image. The

sight and smell of decaying human flesh would be more repugnant than

an image of it.

McCullin’s images of Vietnam took several weeks to reach London, so

they revealed ‘this-is-what-happened’. Changes in camera technology

and mass communications has altered the manner in which images are

disseminated today, conveying ‘this-is-what-is-happening’. Satellite and

Internet links relay images globally within seconds; such is the speed of

modern communications. For the viewer, the ‘time-separation’ of images

can alter the images urgency and immediacy, and this can affect its

impact.

Internet-based images are a weapon of war for combatants and non-

combatants and were called ‘an explosive tool for insurgents’68 by the

Washington Times. This communications-warfare has spurred an interest

in mobile phones: In Iraq between 2004 and 2006 the number of mobile

phones rose from 1.4 million to 7.1 million, suggesting that the violence in

had fed there use.69

Internet linked social media sites relay the brutal horrors with immediacy,

as uncensored images stream from the world’s war-zones. The lack of

censorship is evident, as images appear to be more gruesome with little

consideration for ‘the economy of taste and decency’.

                                                                                                               68 ‘Cellphone technology, an explosive tool for insurgents’ [Online] http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2005/mar/7/20050307-121323-4533r/?page=all [26th January 2014] 69 Shapiro, J.N., Weidman, N.B. ‘Is the Phone Mightier than the Sword? Cell Phones and Insurgent Violence in Iraq’ [Online] http://www.princeton.edu/~jns/papers/SW_2011_Cell_Phones_Insurgency_07JAN12.pdf [14th January 2014]  

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The Syrian Civil War [2011- present] has government forces and ‘rebels’

locked in a vicious and protracted battle for territory. Military opponents

are changing alliances of government forces, defected soldiers, tribal

groups, citizen-fighters and mercenaries, who pitch battle against each

other, and use images and video to create fear. The Internet has indeed

become a weapon of war.

Figure 3.2 Online Video, Syrian Rebel Commander eating organ of a pro-

government soldier, 2012

Figure 3.2 is a still, taken from an internet video-clip and illustrates the

impassioned behaviour that fanatics use in an ideological war. All

combatants have access to cameras and upload to the Internet with

relative ease.

The image in question is a rebel commander in Syria, who has cut open

the body of a pro-government soldier, removes one of his organs and rips

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into it.70 This savagery is not just cannibalism, but a war crime. The

image was not and would not have been published in the press, or

televised as it would breach the ‘standard of taste and decency’71, yet it is

widely available, uncensored on the Internet. The brutality of the image is

of an on-going war, so does that make the viewing of it more unpalatable

and increase its urgency? The brutal image has been verified and the

rebel commander identified by investigations by Aryn Baker of Time

Magazine. The image is almost too shocking to publish; yet, if we do not

look, we are guilty of ignorance. It is only by facing the most vile, that we

are able to have justice for victims and for humankind.

Figure 3.3. Alice Seeley Harris. Nsala with the remains of his daughter, Belgian

Congo, 1904.

                                                                                                               70 Baker, A. ‘Savage Online Video’s Fuel Syria’s Descent into Madness’ [Online] http://world.time.com/2013/05/12/atrocities-will-be-televised-they-syrian-war-takes-a-turn-for-the-worse/ [10th January 2014] 71 Campbell, D. ‘Horrific Blindness: Images of Death in Contemporary Media’ Journal for Cultural Research Volume 8, Number 1, January 2004  

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Figure 3.3 is of an image taken in the Belgian Congo in 1904. Nsala, a

tribesman arrives with all that remains of his daughter, who had been

eaten as punishment for not reaching his rubber quota. Is this image

more or less an atrocity? Does the composed 1904 image alter the

underlying narrative when put against the blurred coloured still from a

video clip? Or, is that we can do nothing about the past, but have a closer

infinity to the present, and would we feel emotionally closer still, if we

were of the same ethnic, cultural or religious background.

There are many images of atrocity, that makes war appears a hyper-

reality. War now imitates cinematic culture, and the awful reality that it is

not entertainment but reality. There is no director who shouts ‘cut’.

The danger is that the public can become saturated by the bombardment

of atrocity images, where one war is like another, and the constant diet of

tragedy can create complacency and compassion fatigue72. Susan

Sontag suggested that photographs of atrocity ‘shock insofar as they

show something novel’73, and further suggests that this creates a

situation where to continue to ‘shock’, the images have to become more

gruesome to attract attention. Alfredo Jaar says ‘bombardment of

images... has completely desensitized us’74

Theorists have a contrary view to photographers. Geert van Kersteren

speaks for many photographers when he says, ‘Spaces are different…

audiences get their own feelings about the images’75 He suggests that

the antidote for so-called compassion fatigue is not for fewer images or

indeed to be increasingly graphic to arrest attention: no, the solution is

the way photographers, media and now, galleries, use those images. The

                                                                                                               72 Compassion Fatigue: A desensitizing of emotional responses to the over proliferation of shocking images. 73 Sontag, S. On Photography, London: Penguin, 1971. Page 19. 74 Linfield, S. Cruel Radiance, Photography and Political Violence, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. Page 46 75 Lardinois, B. ‘Interview with Geert van Kesteren’ In Stallabrass, J. (ed.), Memory of Fire: Images of War and the War of Images, Brighton: Photoworks, 2013. Page 179.  

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images need to be used to awaken the hearts, minds and conscience of a

worldwide audience.

An image in a newspaper has a different audience and therefore a

different impact than in a gallery. An image in a newspaper is seen or

scanned and only carefully viewed if the picture satisfies the interest of

the viewer. If that is not the case, the page is turned to something more

appealing. Gratuitous violence and suffering may attract attention, but a

newspaper-gaze is very different in intensity and gravity [in terms of pull

and importance], of a gallery-gaze.

The gallery experience is unique. It allows the spectator the mental and

physical space to stand and look with unparalleled intensity. Viewing

images in a gallery is an interactive experience, allowing time for the

image to ‘speak’ and the spectator to ‘listen’. The juxtaposition of

shocking images in peaceful, often elegant surroundings may appear

contradictory; but that contradiction allows for the differences to be

realized between those who suffer and those who do not.

Fig 3.4 is Luc Delahaye’s ‘The Taliban Soldier’, a large-scale image

measuring 109cm x 243cm [43” x 96”] which caused considerable

controversy when it was first exhibited. Photographic critic Sean O’Hagan

for the Guardian describes Delahaye’s work as ‘…turning war

photography into an uncomfortable art’76: in part because this subject

matter had never been considered gallery material. His huge canvas

works take on the vision of the spectacular, as size and subject together

create an impact that cannot fail to attract attention.

                                                                                                               76 O’Hagan, S. ‘Luc Delahaye turns war photography into an uncomfortable art’ [Online] http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/aug/09/luc-delahaye-war-photography-art [8th December 2013]

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Figure 3.4: Luc Delahaye: Taliban Soldier, Afghanistan, 1990.

The dead Afghan Taliban soldier appeared shocking because the image

is life-size. The soldiers body has been looted, defiled and abandoned,

and this becomes a telling metaphor for the manner in which the viewing

public, consciously or unconsciously ignore the cries of the suffering.

Photography is a developing art-form and it has to create new ways to

relay awareness and meaning. For a spectator to fully connect with an

image, there has to be a degree of imagination and emotional

engagement. It is by this method that the viewer is able to step

imaginatively and emotionally into another world. The success of this

depends upon the receptive nature of the viewer.

Creative imagination occurs when the visual and intellectual nature of the

viewer is challenged. It is the viewer who has the ability to transform an

image and give it meaning. Gilles Peress calls photography a democratic

process, where the ‘moment where my language finishes and yours

starts’77. Without that intellectual relay, the image remains, just an image,

with no meaning other than a record of what happened. The power of

photography is within the spectator’s interactive responses. Taylor

suggests that, ‘The indifference of people to the suffering of others is not                                                                                                                77 Linfield, S. Cruel Radiance, Photography and Political Violence, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. Page 148.

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an effect of photography but a condition of viewing it in the modern

industrialized world’78

Many images create responses within the spectator, with some

possessing qualities to continue to provoke deep responses. Kenneth

Jarecke 1991 image of ‘The incinerated Iraqi Soldier’ is one.

Figure 3.5. Kenneth Jarecke: Incinerated soldier, Kuwait 1991.

Its publication in a national newspaper79, caused controversy by its

graphic nature. The ash-like figure of a soldier looks ghoulish and

macabre. It is too dreadful to see yet; we are drawn to view its awfulness.

Many considered it crossed the boundary of taste and decency, but The

Observer published it so we would not be guilty of ignorance. It is only

with knowledge that we can be made aware, and it is the photographer

                                                                                                               78 Taylor, J. Body Horror: Photojournalism, Catastrophe and War, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998. Page 148 79 [Online] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4528745.stm [3rd January 2014] The Observer is a broadsheet newspaper not known for publishing sensational or graphic images. The image was sent by Kenneth Jarecke, the photographer to AP in New York, but it was deemed too graphic for editors to publish and was therefore unseen in the US. Since its publication on 3rd October 1991 in The Observer it has, according to Jarecke ‘developed a life of its own’.    

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who challenges the spectator to continue the narrative that he has begun.

That, with intellect, emotion and imagination the spectator, be it in

newsprint, television, galleries or personal media-space allows for the

process of understanding and informed opinion.

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Conclusion

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Conclusion  

‘Images travel across circumstances that are transferable’80

The History of Art reveals that gruesome and horrific interpretations of

atrocity were being created long before the advent of photography.

Dreadful though these depictions appear, they are only interpretations of

events actual or imagined, created in the imagination of the artist. It is

only with the dawn of photography that atrocity was revealed with

authenticity. Imagination has therefore played an early role in the

interpretation of atrocity, whilst the photographic process allowed detail to

be impartially recorded.

Photography has always been considered ‘a document’81 with its primary

function as evidentiary. The medium enabled a reproduction of what was

represented in front of the camera thereby possessed an inherent truth.

However for images to be used as an evidentiary tool there needs,

besides truth, a belief and confidence in their veracity. Belief comes from

our personal knowledge systems and confidence emanates from reliable

information or sources. Truth, however, is not always clear-cut: it is open

to various interpretations [i.e. your point of view], misinterpretations [i.e.

misreading] and changing interpretations [i.e. altered viewpoints over time

and place].

The evidentiary element of photographs is crucial in the determining of

our opinions and so guides our emotional response. Any distortion of

truth belittles the images’ value. If images have a flawed integrity, the

opinions created by them are likewise flawed. It is for this reason that

photographers and news agencies demand the highest standard within

                                                                                                               80 Zelizer, B. About to Die: How News Images Move the Public New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Page 11 81 Document: from the Latin Documentum meaning proof.

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their profession. The age of digital imagery does tend to limit our capacity

to automatically believe everything we see.

Distortions however minor, influence visual responses and

interpretations. Associated Press (AP) dismissed Pulitzer Prize winning

photographer, Narciso Contreras for cloning a seemingly unimportant part

of an image whilst on assignment in Syria in 2013. AP said, ‘[Our]

reputation is paramount and we act decisively and vigorously when it is

tarnished by actions in violation of our ethics code’82. This action appears

ruthless, but ensured the continued integrity of Associated Press images.

Figure 4.1: Narciso Contreras. The original image taken by Narciso Contreras

showing his collegue’s video camera.

Chapter 2 clearly demonstrates that war photographers have a mission.

James Nachtwey declared, ‘I have been a witness and [my] pictures are

[my] testimony’83, whilst Geert van Kerstern says, ‘This is what I saw – I

invite you to look’84. It is this very act of bearing witness that sets many of

                                                                                                               82 ‘Award-winning photographer dumped for altering single Syria image’ [Online] http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jan/23/photographer-dumped-altering-syria-image [25th January 2014] 83 [Online] http://www.jamesnachtwey.com [4th December 2013] 84 van Kersteren, G. Why Mister Why? Iraq 2003-2004, Amsterdam: Artimo, 2004

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these photographers apart. They give a ‘voice of the visual’85 and their

work is pivotal to our knowledge, understanding and therefore our

emotional responses. The voice does not elude to sound, but to emotion

and imagination, and is based on the images connotation and denotation.

It is the connotative value of the image that drives the viewers

imagination. Their vision creates our vision; their eyes become our eyes.

Different photographers adopt different styles in order to create this

connection. James Natchwey adopts a sophisticated, dignified and

elegant style; Luc Delahaye scenes envisage a ‘tableaux vivant’

approach, using panoramic scenes that replicate the human gaze, whilst

van Kerstern creates images of chaos and disorder. Their styles may

vary, but their united intention is to bear witness.

War is about power. Photographers reveal what war can do: homes

destroyed, civilians traumatized, economies shattered and landscapes

flattened, with the inherent loss of home, life and future. It is this struggle

of human survival that occupies the photographers as much as bombs

and battles. For atrocity and suffering to be translated across time,

distance and culture it is the human face that creates the connection with

the distant spectator – this is the substance of Chapter 3.

Photographic evidence of suffering people transforms objective evidence

gathering and establishes this emotional connection. Susan Sontag says,

‘…our failure [to respond] is one of imagination and empathy. We fail to

hold this reality in our minds’86.

Whereas evidence is informative, logical, objective, reasoned and

considered, our emotions are subjective, personal, sometimes irrational

and not always logical. Feelings can be stirred into passion, and the

publics’ responses can vary to images of atrocity.

                                                                                                               85 Zelier, B. About To Die, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Page 12 86 Sontag, S. Regarding the Pain of Others London: Penguin, 2003. Page 7

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It is imperative that evidence is truthful, honest and has integrity, for

opinions are thus created. Photography works within the contradictory

tensions of objectivity [recording what is there] and subjectivity [taken with

a photographers use of the camera], and this tension has to be held in

balance.

Truth has to become the new objectivity.

Emotional reaction to images of cruelty, suffering and atrocity are not just

based on seeing or looking but occurs when the spectator transports

him/herself into the lives of the subject, so that we ‘…hear things [in the

image] because we cannot see everything87’. The transference of ‘what

we see’ into ‘what we feel’ is what links the ‘then’ to the ‘now’ and the

‘there’ to the ‘here’, so reducing the time/distance ratio between what the

photographer saw and what a wider audience sees. This is when an

emotional connection is created.

This study has looked closely at the history of atrocity and suffering in art,

and investigated the role of photographs from the standpoint of both

photographer and spectator.

However, recording atrocity and suffering is not enough, for evidence

without reaction is meaningless. Without an emotional response the

image, according to Gilles Peress is without purpose: ‘…if you’re not

going to look at the world then certainly you’re not going to change it’88.

Change only comes when images are seen, opinions become well

formed and passionate indignation is translated into action. This cannot

happen without evidence with emotion. The role of the photographer and

spectator is equivalent.

Word Count: 8150

                                                                                                               87 Zelier, B. About To Die, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Page 13 88 Linfield, S. The Cruel Radiance: Photography and Political Violence, Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2010. Page 236

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