PHOTOGRAPHS AND WAR MEMORY
THE PURPOSE: This mini-project is designed at its most ambitious to provoke serious thinking about the relationship between photography as a medium and the collective memories of war. How have visual images shaped peoples' understanding of particular wars and of war in general? How have photographers framed their own understanding of their task? The less abstract purpose is to introduce you to a number of combat photojournalists.
THE PROCEDURE: The exercise involves two steps:
Step 1: Pick one "Iconic War Photo," defined as an image that has imprinted itself on the memory of a very substantial number of viewers. It should be one of the photographs most commonly associated with a particular conflict. I have identified a number of such images at Iconic War Photos and included some relevant web links. But you need not choose from this list. Find out everything you can about that picture. Who was the photographer? Who were the various people in the photograph? Can you place the photo within a story-line that moves beyond the click of the camera? What was the impact of the photograph at the time? What is the "afterlife" of the image? Has it, for example, been incorporated into art pieces or been referred to in popular culture? What did the photographer and the subjects of the photo think about the picture? What happened to them in the days and years after the photo was taken? How, if at all, did the image itself change their lives?
Step 2: Find a minimum of five other interesting war or war remembrance photos. Mount these on blank paper or poster board. Print or type detailed captions that, at a minimum, clearly identify the photo but more preferably provide information or analysis linked to the theme of war and memory. We will transform the classroom into a War Photo Museum. You may want to focus your research on one photographer or basic theme. The links and names below are by no means comprehensive but are offered as possible starting places. The assignment will not be graded separately but you will be asked to hand in the poster board as a journal entry.
SOME PHOTOGRAPHERS:
ANSEL ADAMS. For Adams's World War II-era chronicling of Japanese-American internment at Manzanar, California, see .
EDDIE ADAMS: Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his 1969 shot of the Saigon street execution of a Viet Cong suspect.
FELICE BEATO: Perhaps the first roving war correspondent, he covered various conflicts in the Far East in the late nineteenth century.
THERESE BONNEY: American-born photographer who settled in Paris after World War I and documented European refugees on the road in the aftermath of World War II.
MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE: Famed American photojournalist perhaps best known for her pictures taken at Buchenwald. See the resources at
MATHEW BRADY: The most famous of the photographers of the U.S. Civil War (1861-65).
ESTHER BUBLEY: Photographer who captured war on the home front in the United States during WW II.
LARRY BURROWS: Born in Britain, he covered the Vietnam War for nine years before being shot down over the Ho Chi Minh Trail in 1971. For a Digital Journalist website, see . See also the feature at .
ROBERT CAPA: Legendary American journalist famed for his Spanish Civil War and World War II photos. He helped to found Magnum Photos and was killed in 1954 when he stepped on a land mine in Vietnam.
HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON: Perhaps the greatest photographer of the twentieth century, his work includes some images of conflict. For an introduction, see
AGUSTIN VICTOR CASASOLA (1874-1938): Chronicled the Mexican Revolution.
EVGHENJ CHALDEY: The Russian World War II photographer, his images include the raising of the hammer and sickle on the top of the Reichstag.
GREG DAVIS: For a Digital Photojournalist tribute from Philip Jones Griffiths, see GREG DAVIS 1948-2003.
DAVID DOUGLAS DUNCAN: For a University of Texas exhibition of this American photographer's Vietnam War pictures, see ONE LIFE, A PHOTOGRAPHIC ODYSSEY.
ROGER FENTON: For an on-line exhibit of Fenton's Crimean War photographs, see .
TONI FRISSELL: A famed fashion photographer who volunteered for the Red Cross in World War II.
ALEXANDER GARDNER: At one time official photographer of the Union Army of the Potomac during the U.S. Civil War.
PHILIP JONES GRIFFITHS: See for a feature on this Welsh Magnum photographer.
RONALD HAEBERLE: Vietnam-era American photographer most famous for his Life My Lai Massacre images.
BERT HARDY: Captured the London Blitz, the Allied entry into Paris, and the liberation of the concentration camps for the British Picture Post. He also covered the Korean War.
JIMMY HARE (1856-1946): Photographed the Spanish-American War of 1898 for Collier's Magazine.
RON HAVIV: See the remarkable essay and images at . See also the photoessay . See USNEWS.COM for an interview with Haviv.
PETER HOWE: A former picture editor for the New York Times and director of photography for Life Magazine.
FRANK HURLEY: Documented the Shackleton Expedition and front-line World War I Australian combat photographer.
KENNETH JARECKE: See INSIDE SADDAM'S IRAQ for a photoessay from 2000.
DEBORAH COPAKEN KOGAN: The author of Shutterbabe, her memoir of a life inside the male-dominated profession of combat photography.
CATHERINE LEUTHOLD: See this contemporary photojournalist's portfolio of images of Palestinians caught in conflict at
DON MCCULLIN: British photographer who covered war stories during the 1960s and 1970s. Forbidden access to the Falklands by the British government.
LEE MILLER: A famous twentieth-century photographer who worked for the U.S. Army in World War II. See THE LEE MILLER ARCHIVE.
MIGUEL GIL MORENO (1968-2000): Photojournalist killed in an ambush in Sierra Leone in 2000. For a memorial dedication, see
CARL MYDANS: American photographer who covered the Korean War for Life.
JAMES NACHTWEY: An acclaimed American photographer who has spent much of the last two decades documenting war. For information about Christian Frei's film about Nachtwey, see . For his September 11 portfolio, see SHATTERED.
HORACE NICHOLLS: Hired by the Women's Work Committee of the Imperial War Museum to document British women at work in the First World War.
TIMOTHY O'SULLIVAN: A young understudy of Mathew Brady, his photos taken at the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1863) were amongst the most famous of the U.S. Civil War. See the resources at
DAMIEN PARER: An Australian photographer and film-maker killed in 1944.
GILES PERESS: French photographer who chronicled many of the world's most troubled regions in recent decades, most notably, perhaps, Northern Ireland. See a portfolio with commentary at http://www.artsmia.org/get-the-picture/print/peress.shtml
WILLIAM RIDER-RIDER: Canadian photojournalist of World War I.
GEORGE RODGERS (1908-1995): The famed British photographer, he swore off war journalism after covering Bergen-Belsen.
KURT SCHORK: Reporter and cameraman killed in Sierra Leone in 2000. For a memorial and a selection of his photos, see
GENE SMITH: American photojournalist who covered the Pacific in World War II and was wounded at Okinawa. See the resources at
TOM STODDART: For a portfolio of this contemporary British photojournalist, see
DAVID TURNLEY: For a representative photoessay, see . See also the portfolio at FIELDS OF SORROW.
PETER TURNLEY: For his photos of the Balkans in 1999, see FIELDS OF SORROW.
NICK UT: A photojournalist forever linked with his memorable image of Kim Phuc, a young Vietnamese victim of a napalm bombing. For Ut's attempt to place that photo in a broader perspective, see "THE BIGGER PICTURE Nick Ut recalls the Events of June 8, 1972."
WEB-SITE LINKS (General links are listed first, followed by individual wars in reverse chronological order)
HAROLD EVANS, "REPORTING IN A TIME OF WAR," NEWSEUM: A short but thoughtful historical overview.
"PORTRAYING THE GRAPHIC FACE OF WAR," USC ANNENBERG ONLINE JOURNALISM REVIEW, March 20, 2003. Discusses the history of war photography against the backdrop of the looming Second Gulf War.
NICK DANZIGER, "LONG SHOTS," GUARDIAN, April 16, 2003.
For a selection of AP photographs from the Second Gulf War, see
IMAGES OF WAR: This has a useful series of links to photos covering the Second Gulf War.
: A photoessay by Jerome Delay on the eve of the Second Gulf War.
: A superb portfolio of Vietnam War images dedicated to six photographers killed on assignment during that war.
"ANOTHER VIETNAM: NORTH VIETNAMESE IMAGES SHOW UNSEEN SIDE OF WAR," NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC (JANUARY 24, 2003).
Teaching With Documents Lesson Plan: The War in Vietnam, A Story in Photographs : A lesson and a dozen accompanying images from the U.S. National Archives.
WOMEN COME TO THE FRONT: JOURNALISTS, PHOTOGRAPHERS, AND BROADCASTERS DURING WORLD WAR II.
"World War II Combat Photographers Focused On A Different Time," Agoura Hills Acorn, August 29, 2002.
BALKAN PORTRAITS: PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE BALKANS, 1906-1910 BY DR. FRITZ WENTZEL
: Images of the U.S. Civil War selected by the Library of Congress.
An extensive series of U.S. Civil War photos from the New York Historical Society Collection.
WHO WON THE CIVIL WAR?: A contemporary photo essay that explores the
memories of the U.S. Civil War.
See for an installment in this on-going series that focuses in on the U.S. Military.