Wednesday, June 24, 2009

The Power of Photographs


Many have seen the gruesome video of "Neda" in Iran. Apparently shot by Iranian military forces, she's become a symbol for their quest for democracy. Our President understands the power of these types of images. He says that you can recognize the fundamental injustice just from viewing it.

Press corps veteran Helen Thomas, who was almost always ignore by Bush because her questions aren't milk toast, interrupted to ask Obama how he reconciles this statement with his own refusal to release the torture photos. Obama quickly cut her off as the rest of the press corps laughed, and he just ignored her inquiry.

Above I have a famous photo of an Iraqi detainee comforting his own son. It won World Press Photo of the Year in 2003, but I only first saw it recently. I wonder how many Americans have seen it. Maybe not so many. So I thought I'd provide it here. Like the photos at Abu Graib (the background of which is well detailed in a documentary by Errol Morris called Standar Operating Procedure, which is well worth seeing), I think this is the type of thing that is important to see to improve our understanding of what is really happening so far away in Iraq.

1 comment:

atimetorend said...

Thanks for posting this, I had not seen it. Absolutely heartbreaking.