War Images: A Catalyst for Moral Action?
The power of photography to define meaning, shape perspective, and reinforce ideology cannot be underestimated. Ample evidence of this power is provided by the Bush AdministrationÆs refusal to permit photographs of American casualties in coffins arriving home. From images of American marines raising the U.S. flag at Iwo Jima to the mushroom cloud that rose over Nagasaki after U.S. forces dropped a second atomic bomb on Japan, war photographs have a powerful impact on society (SEE Photos 1 and 2). However, whether a war photograph features an emaciated Jew in a Nazi concentration camp or a statue of Saddam Hussein tumbling down, all war images photographed carry with them the perspective of the photographer. In her book On Photography, Susan Sontag (p. 20) warned that ôImages transfix. Images anesthetize.ö This analysis will explore photos of war images in order to more fully understand this type of photography.
Images do transfix and images do anesthetize. This is particularly true of war images that show extreme brutality or violence or those that immediately symbolize an ideology for large numbers of people. The image of the toppling of the status of Saddam Hussein provides an immediate reinforce of the power and strength of U.S. and Western values, (SEE Photo 3). War images are often capable of undermining ideology as well. War images of the dead arriving home in coffins were restricted from public view by the Pentagon. Tami Silicio, a cargo worker in Iraq, took a photo of dead American soldiers being flown home, and when the image hit the front page of numerous newspapers across the country, she and her husband were fired from their government jobs (SEE Photo 4).
Other war images are often illustrations of the most inhumane acts of barbarity against armed forces and civilians. From point blank executions of prisoners in cold blood to young children scalded and run...