Five, six, seven...

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Roger Hicks

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...open up them pearly gates.

(apologies if I misremember the words -- it's been a long time)

For anyone who thinks classic photojournalism is dead, or confined to perfectly sharp, sanitized shots...

EDIT: Bad link given, but see three posts down. Kim has solved it. Thanks, Kim!

Cheers,

R.
 
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Mackinaw said:
Link didn't work for me.

Jim B.
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Dear Jim,

Damn! Me neither. Go to www.bbc.co.uk and 'News' (second from the right at the top) and 'Picture Power -- on Afghanistan's front line...' from the strap at the bottom.

Distressingly close to the pictures we saw 40 years ago from Vietnam.

Maybe someone else can do the link.

Cheers,

R.
 
I was looking at those earlier today.

Great pictures that really get you there. Then I remembered a thread running on here about the merits of the Magnum "Photo Of The Week".
 
Yes, I saw this earlier today too.

Reminded me of Don McCullin's work in Vietnam.

That is meant as the highest compliment

Regards,

Bill
 
Wow ... a still image conveys the trauma of war like no video footage ever could.

Great link ... thanks Roger these are brilliant!
 
I applaud him for (amongst many other reasons!) having the confidence to publish shot 8; I'm sure many would have binned it without a second thought.

For me, shots 9 and 7 are some of the most powerful shots I've seen for a while.

Cheers
Jamie
 
Well, not too long ago we had a thread on here about these shots and someone commented that it was really no big deal, because the captions made the shot. They said the shot very well could have been of a soldier recovering from a hangover. Which, might possibly be the dumbest thing I have read on here in a long, long time.

This is great work. It defines the absolute horror of war and reminds us all how fragile and fleeting life can be.
 
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" be the first on your block to have your kid come home in a box "
that was my favorite line in that song.
 
Rick Waldroup said:
Well, not too long ago we had a thread on here about these shots and someone commented that it was really no big deal, because the captions made the shot. They said the shot very well could have been of a soldier recovering from a hangover. Which, might possibly be the dumbest thing I have read on here in a long, long time.
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I'm the person who wrote that.

Did you read the entire post?

Did you think about what I said?

Or did your knees just start jerking reflexively because you were seeing visual stimuli to which our media have conditioned you to evoke a specific political response?


A lot of people are very uncomfortable with the idea that our response to photographs depends heavily on what we're told about them, not just what's evident within the photograph itself. But there's no point in going into denial about it.
 
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Originally Posted by Roger Hicks
Distressingly close to the pictures we saw 40 years ago from Vietnam.

Indeed. And sadly so.
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They appear close because we are being fed them for the same reason. Just as they did during the Vietnam era, news media operatives are generating, selecting and presenting content to serve a specific political agenda, and for the same purpose -- to influence the outcome of elections in a particular direction.

Put that in your bong and smoke it, Country Joe.

I'm going to be blamed for hijacking this thread, but in reality it was hijacked from the start. If you want to keep political discussions off RFF, don't start them in the first place... not even disguised as photo-appreciation.

Bonus quiz: What country provided hospitality to the planners of the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks in which 2,700 American civilians were murdered? Yippee, we're all gonna die...
 
jlw said:
They appear close because we are being fed them for the same reason. Just as they did during the Vietnam era, news media operatives are generating, selecting and presenting content to serve a specific political agenda, and for the same purpose -- to influence the outcome of elections in a particular direction.

Put that in your bong and smoke it, Country Joe.

I'm going to be blamed for hijacking this thread, but in reality it was hijacked from the start. If you want to keep political discussions off RFF, don't start them in the first place... not even disguised as photo-appreciation.

Bonus quiz: What country provided hospitality to the planners of the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks in which 2,700 American civilians were murdered? Yippee, we're all gonna die...
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No. The politics were introduced in this post. Most of the world do not care one jot or iota about a parochial election. Most of the world does care that war is wrong. If that is the "political agenda" to which you refer, I for one am pleased to see it.

These are powerful images in their own right. Are you saying they should never have been captured?

Regards,

Bill
 
Hi all folks and jlw first of all,

Going back to the basic issues concerning us all, this series of pictures are very very powerfull.

The first time I was personally exposed to the power of the photo-essay, was upon looking at an old book about the fascist skin heads in Europe.
The series here about Afghanistan had a similar effect on me:

A real high quality photo essay shows you the inners of something you never knew before.

What is going on in Afghanistan between the US troops and the Taleban, it was a question I had in my head somewhere to get.

This series show me the Americans on the ground are having it hard. BUT

Dear JLW,
- this series don't show me how the Taleban are having it.

- I do not see any reason to make a link between these pics and the Vietnam war. Afghanistan is not Vietnam, nor the Taleban are the Viet-Cong, nor Bin Laden nears the shoes of Ho Chi Minh.

(We all have seen that video displaying Bin Laden re-joycing about the twins massacre among his disciples. I would like to see a video about the Taleban leaders enjoying loosing control of Afghanistan upon Bin Laden's action.)

- I am sure some folks at your home are making the link with the Vietnam war, appealing to the lowest level of intelligence, but you jlw strangely seem very entangled with them and thus you play to their hands.

- The assumption that the leading politicians of the US have not learnt anything from the Vietnam war sounds to me a very low level one to be taken seriously. Not that I behold a great symphaty for these folks, but I would never belittle them.

- And finally, there is one nice folk among us whom I have to say Afghanistan is Afghanistan, Iraq is Iraq.

So jlw, take it easy, relax, let the cheap politics aside, ignore their chorus, and if you must to engage in politics upon any offense you feel on your opinions, at least do it at a serious in-depht level.

Like the referred photo-essay, say something really new, original, appealing to our highest level of intelligence. Your audience then will broaden.

Cheers,
Ruben
 
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Wars are very photogenic. They have action, death, guns, all manner of outrageous military hardware, suffering indigenous populations and exotic locations. Combine that with a good photographic eye and you're on to a winner.

I posted a few of my snapshots from Iraq on a website a couple of years back and was offered an agency contract (with a very respectable British agency) within 24 hours.
 
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