leslie_cheung Posted May 21, 2006 Share Posted May 21, 2006 <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/beyondwords/index.html" >Beyond Words</a> : doc videoabout conflict photogs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kent_tolley2 Posted May 21, 2006 Share Posted May 21, 2006 For me this was literally beyond words. I couldn't get the sound to work. I didn't need the sound though because these pictures speak loudly. I have so much admiration for photographers who witness and bring back these stories. To put your craft in the service of those who most need the exposure in such dangerous places is itself beyond words. Several on this forum have argued convincingly that these photogs are in it for their own self-gratification but the pictures still speak louder to me. In a world asleep in the dreams of American Idol, the mating habits of celebrities, the latest diets in an over-weight nation, events in Africa and the Middle East get lost except for pictures like these. The very last picture on the tape of the man hiding his tears sitting over the broken body of his child is what photography is about to me. Sometimes I think I am an old sentimental fool but with regard to these pictures I wish my countrymen were not so proud of their cynicism and thick skins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kent_tolley2 Posted May 21, 2006 Share Posted May 21, 2006 <i>I am an amateur and I intend to stay that way for the rest of my life. I reject all forms of professional cleverness or virtuosity. . .As soon as i have found the image that interests me, I leave it to the lens to record it faithfully. Look at reporters, amateurs - both of whose sole aim is to gather a memory or a document; that is pure photography.</i><BR> ~ Andre Kertesz, 1930 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brambor Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 thanks for the link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobo_moon1 Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 Entire video can be viewed here: http://www.poynterextra.org/NPPA2006/index.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donsorsa Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 Great video and images. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
working camera Posted May 23, 2006 Share Posted May 23, 2006 "I didn't need the sound though because these pictures speak loudly" so true. Conflict reportage always delivers a huge impact on me. Its better viewed without sound. Unfortunately it's genre which still has a great future I missed the threads regarding arguments that conflict photographers are in it for "their own self-gratification." I would recommend... "Requiem: by the photographers who died in Vietnam and Indochina as essential reading" Published by Johnathan Cape London, Random House (1997) ISBN O-224-05058-3 ...as essential reading It's a companion book from exhibition put together by Tim Page and Horst Fass. My copy is signed by Tim Page "photography in Peace" They are words enough There was a thread on Fass over at the LF forum last year http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00CUZH&tag= No one who comes home from experiencing a war remains unaffected. Most are deeply affected. Armed conflict is just not a fun subject. Anyone who says that the drivers to do this sort of work is simple self-gratification has never met and spoken with those that have done this sort of work. The rational behind these guys desire to do the work is quite complex and I guess us homebodies with never fully understand. But I'm greatful to those who are mad enough to go out and do it. C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leslie_cheung Posted May 23, 2006 Author Share Posted May 23, 2006 I just watch the entire video myself. Please do give it a look, it is an excellent piece not to mention it's free to download. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kent_tolley2 Posted May 23, 2006 Share Posted May 23, 2006 Using Bobo Moon's link I was able to watch the entire video also. Thank you Leslie for bringing this piece forward. I hope everyone takes the hour required to watch it. It is the richest film full of the most moving photographs with voice-over from the photojournalists who took them. I had to write down what James Nachtwey says toward the end of the piece for those who don't end up watching it. <BR><BR> Talking over agonizing B&W shots of children in an orphanage in Romania he says: <BR><i>. . . these shots did not test my faith in the value of photography so much as it tested my very faith in humanity.</i> <BR>And that in spite of his despair, and you can see and hear it in his voice and his expression,<BR> <i> there is no value in giving up . . . that I continue out of hope. Not hope in God or divine intervention but hope in humanity because all we have is each other.</i> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kent_tolley2 Posted May 23, 2006 Share Posted May 23, 2006 In Bobo's link, double click in the menu item - Judges Choice (graphic) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kent_tolley2 Posted May 23, 2006 Share Posted May 23, 2006 Craig - a better choice of words than "self-gratification", describing one of the motivations for these photojournalists would have been "self-aggrandizement." Boris C Han has argued this side of an internal conflict in the PJ and it is described with resignation by several of the PJ's in this film. <BR><BR> David Leeson talks about being disturbed to receive a Pulitzer for things he wished he had never seen. Corrine Dufka describing what drove her to finally leave the profession: photographing an execution in the civil war in Liberia and hoping the pictures were going to turn out because they were dynamic images and simultaneously feeling physically sick, like she was going to throw up because she had just photographed someone being murdered. <BR><BR> They are very self-aware and cop to the self-aggrandizement. Several of them talk about profiting, not monetarily but in terms of fame, from taking pictures of brutality and violence worse than you can imagine. In most of these PJ's is a sense that their work might motivate people to change but ultimately knowing it makes no difference and that this madness is going to continue in spite of the photographs. Because covers of Time with pictures of Brittany Spears are what people buy and not pictures from the bombed out neighborhoods of Baghdad or refugees in Darfur. I think they must be the most incurable romantics in the world to go on like they do and you have to love them for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
working camera Posted May 24, 2006 Share Posted May 24, 2006 I very much appreciate your words Kent. It is two edged sword for PJs, I guess. On the one hand vainly hoping the imagery makes a real difference. One that would, in a perfect world, put them out of job. ...and balanced against the necessity of dealing with the professional notoriety and glamour that comes from being good at your job. C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leslie_cheung Posted May 24, 2006 Author Share Posted May 24, 2006 Glad you like the video Kent. I concur with most of your posts but I tend to believe there are far more Americans that are NOT exposed to current world events rather than pure cynicism or thickskin. I remember reading a survey and it found that only 12% of all americans traveled outside the US if not counting Mexico and Canada. I find this data dishearten. Do we really live in a bubble? Are we that isolated? When, if ever, will we realize that there are so much more out there than say CNN world edition? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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