Apology of photo posting

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One cannot blame the one offended by taking offense or calling them out. I applaud Mike for stepping forward and for his apology. The thing I find most admirable, it didn't matter if one or one hundred were offended. Mike stepped forward. I did not see the image either. Without knowing who this person was, or personally knowing Mike, his image, good or bad, struck a dissonant cord. I knew many a Holocaust survivor and were friends with their children. Things we take for granted, obviously have a deeper meaning for others. One cannot know how another feels unless we accept their expressions of their feelings, or walk in their shoes.
 
I didn't see the photo, but the world has become, sadly, an overly sensitive place. I'm more offended by photos of women with a dead octopus on their head that is supposed to be art than even photos of dead birds. So you are probably safe with me.
 
I think the world has not become "overly sensitive". Due to technology, the media, one is more aware of things around the globe, as well as across town than ever before. Due to the appropriation of the Nazis of the swastika, it became a symbol of hate and intolerance. We are exposed to different cultures and societies as never before. What all this media and technology should be teaching us, is to be tolerant. But the opposite is true. We degrade those we do not understand. I find so many young people are so intolerant and devoid of knowledge of history. This is saddening. The Holocaust is now 70 years ago. Those survivors are almost all gone. My father is WWll veteran. He's 86. Who is going to pass on their actual experiences? What will history teach us about Iraq and Afganistan? What about the ever widening gap of rich and poor?

No, we are not a sensitive and tolerant people.
 
kbg32 said:
I find so many young people are so intolerant...
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I find the extreme opposite to be the case. My kids, their friends and many if not most of my students are so much more open to anyone being themselves no matter what that self is.

It is very encouraging to see such tolerance. Having grown up in a world where racism and sexism were so pervasive to see such a turnaround in young people today is wonderful. There is indeed hope.

Now if those stuck in the past would just get over it...
 
kbg32 said:
I think the world has not become "overly sensitive". Due to technology, the media, one is more aware of things around the globe, as well as across town than ever before. Due to the appropriation of the Nazis of the swastika, it became a symbol of hate and intolerance. We are exposed to different cultures and societies as never before. What all this media and technology should be teaching us, is to be tolerant. But the opposite is true. We degrade those we do not understand. I find so many young people are so intolerant and devoid of knowledge of history. This is saddening. The Holocaust is now 70 years ago. Those survivors are almost all gone. My father is WWll veteran. He's 86. Who is going to pass on their actual experiences? What will history teach us about Iraq and Afganistan? What about the ever widening gap of rich and poor?

No, we are not a sensitive and tolerant people.
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Sorry, when Peter Wyskowski came to my grade school (a Polish Jew, right after the War) and I finally was able to understand his story after about a year, I became very intolerant. But his story was a horror, now someone can't be told something that is objectionable to them, and it is a civil rights violation. Well sorry, tell Peter (still alive) what is a violation of civil/human rights. Sorry again, I think we need to forget about race and the race business and concentrate on really bad social ills. I know this isn't about photography so I will be edited, I'm not sure but maybe we agree.
 
I find sometimes that tolerance and apathy are hard to distinguish between.
 
back alley said:
i accept other's feelings without hesitation.

i get fearful when i am asked to look the other way to history though.
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The photo of the tail assembly of a WWII German aircraft was taken in the Australian War Museum, in Canberra, the nation's capital. It is our national war museum, dedicated to the brave men and women who fought, and died, for our country.

It is a very large, and very good, museum. It documents the lives and the horrors of war in meticulous detail, from the very small and personal (personal diaries and possessions of soldiers on the Western Front) to the large machinery of war (the remains of one of the Japanese midget submarines that attacked Sydney Harbour on 29 May 1942, and in the Aircraft Hall, an impressive static display of WW1 and WWII aircraft, including Nazi war birds).

It would be inappropriate to suggest the museum remove the swastikas from the Nazi war birds on display. Yes, the swastika is offensive, a graphically powerful symbol representing atrocities on an almost unimaginable scale. But it is part of history, and to attempt to expunge its image would deny visitors the opportunity to learn about the symbol used to rally an entire population around an evil regime.

The Australian War Museum is a place of great respect. You cannot walk the halls of the museum without being humbled by what you see. In this place, in these circumstances, Mike walked with his camera, seeing with his sharp photographer's eye light, shapes, patterns, the terrible beauty of
the machinery of war. He saw an interesting composition of light and form, and made a photograph - of what was there, in front of him, in a national shrine to the brave Australians who died fighting tyranny and evil.

Must Australians be criticised for photographing what is in their own national war museum?

I can understand the anger and anguish of those who look at the swastika symbol and all it represents. I ask those people, would you wish to expunge that symbol so that future generations cannot learn about the nature of evil? Would you wish for history to be repeated, and the lessons of history to go unlearned?

To my mind an appropriate response would have been to ask Mike about his photograph, and his intention in posting it, before making any criticism.

I applaud Mike for his humility in making an apology. He is a well-mannered gentleman. In the circumstances and in his intent in taking it, I believe it to be unnecessary.

If I were photographing the activities of Neo-Nazis now in America or europe, I would not hesitate to show their fanatical swastika-daubed bodies and faces in all their ugly detail. And I would not hesitate to photograph Nazi war birds. I have no desire for history to be repeated.
 
Enough, please! I appreciate the comments, but this was my decision and I acted the way I felt was necessary.In my humble opinion I believe it made for a better composition overall. The photo was not historic or a documentary image. I feel very strongly about this. Please let it rest.

Mike
 
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