Tim Hetherington...

Tim Hetherington: Is there humanity in war?

Tim Hetherington was a British born photojournalist and documentary film maker. During his time he documented political upheaval in West Africa in countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria amongst others. He also documented the Afghanistan war in the Middle East. Hetherington unfortunately died whilst on assignment in Misrata Libya for Vanity Fair in 2011 with his colleague Chris Hondros.
            Hetherington photographed war because he wanted to show the humanity of the people in the wars as we as tell a story with his images, he had said in an interview on YouTube about his work – he said that he wanted to convey emotion and feeling in to his images because he wanted them to be powerful and tell a story. He said that images can reach the world more than words can, no matter what language you speak, you can read an image.
            A lot of Hetherington’s war photography and images from Afghanistan: The Humanity of War, were shot in colour and the way he shot them was from an intimate point of view that captures the American soldiers and almost gives them a personality and I guess it gives them that element of humanity because it makes you think and realise that they are still just everyday people like you and me because you can see them relaxing, sleeping, laughing and doing things to pass their time from when they are not out patrolling and risking their lives every day.
            I think that Hetherington’s images work well in telling a story of what happens and what emotions the soldiers go through during war, but I personally do not find them as powerful and emotional as images by Don McCullin for example, I think that Hetherington’s style of photography more so tries to remind you that everyone involved in war is a person, an individual and that they all have a story where as McCullin’s images are more raw and remind you of the consequence of war and what tragedy happens. Hetherington’s images don’t depict people killing each other left right and centre; some of his images show a different side of war from the side lines – what the soldiers do when they are trying to wind down. I personally do not think his images really show the seriousness of war but they are trying to tell the stories of the soldiers in the war.

Don McCullin - Changes War Photography

Don McCullin - Changes War Photography?

Don McCullin is a British born photojournalist who is best known internationally for his war photography and front cover images for The Sunday Times Magazine. During his active years as a photojournalist he covered events/wars/disasters in: Cyprus, The Congo, Vietnam, Biafra, Northern Ireland, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Beirut to name some.

            The reason McCullin photographed war is because he wanted as much of the world to see the stone cold consequences of what war brought. It brought death, hunger, disease, pain, the taking away of human rights and continuous suffering. He has said in interviews that he is reminded every single day of the things he has seen and can never shake them off. He said that as much as he hated being a war photographer he was addicted to war and would have withdrawal so I think that could also be another reason as to why he continued to photograph war zones as well as him wanting to raise the awareness.
             Although previous war photographers captured war, I think that the way in which Don McCullin captured war is something else and on a completely different level as to what photographers like Mathew Brady and Robert Capa before him would have shown. Of course that would also have been down to the developments in technology. A lot of McCullin’s war imagery is very raw, detailed and hard hitting in the sense that it really brings to reality, the horribly heart breaking shock of what war causes and what humans will and have done to each other. With his images being in black and white the detail stands out pretty clear and I think that if he had been shooting in colour it may have taken away too much from what he was showing and would have been distracting to the eye.
            I think that McCullin’s work is really powerful and in all honesty brings tears to my eyes when I see a lot of it. I think that he was very successful in bringing to light the reality and consequence of war through his real imagery. It makes me realise how much bad actually happens in the world and it reminds me that mankind can do extremely cruel heartless things to one another in the name of war for territory of land, religion, money and power. His work is very thought provoking and makes you question your own ethical beliefs as well as others from the person pulling the trigger of the gun, to the person taking the photo and beyond. I think that if there weren’t photographers like Don McCullin around - who portray truth – the world media would sugar coat so many things and no one would ever know what really goes on in the world – it would just be a constant barrage of celebrity culture and nothing else.

Robert Capa War Photography - The Revolution?

Robert Capa War Photography - The Revolution?

Robert Capa was a Hungarian photographer born in 1913, he was best known for his war photography and for being one of the co-founders of Magnum Photos which was the first ever agency for freelance photographers around the world. Capa documented the Spanish civil war, the Chinese resistance to Japan, World War 2, the D-Day landings on Omaha Beach, Russia and Israel and the first Indochina War where he unfortunately died whilst on assignment for Life Magazine.
            Robert Capa hated war and hated seeing the pain and suffering around him – not being able to do anything about it.  And I think that through his war photography and journalism he was trying to show how war destroyed lives, took peoples human rights away, I think he wanted to show the cold reality of what was going on and although war photography had been done before, Robert Capa’s use of a camera and being able to get close enough and have bullets flying past him whilst trying to capture these moments was a bit of a revolution in war photography and at that time it’s what set him aside from other war photographers.
            You can see with Capa’s images they were not staged (apart from maybe the controversial image of ‘The Falling Solider’ from the Spanish Civil War where there has been much debate and I believe proven or decided that the image was in fact staged).
           All of Capa’s war images were shot in black and white and on much more compact cameras than what his predecessors like: Matthew Brady, Alexander Gardner, and Timothy O’Sullivan had available to them in the 1800’s. It gave him the freedom to move with the camera and capture some form of movement and action on the battlefield. I think that a prime example of that are the few images that survived from the Omaha Beach D-Day landings during WWII.
           The D-Day images captured the moment so well regardless of the shaky appearance, but I think that’s what gives the images life, because you can truly imagine how scared every single solider was getting off the boats and running on to Omaha Beach strait in to gun fire from the enemy. I really feel that they captured so much reality and truth and these images really brought to life the terror and uncertainty of war. The images were so descriptive with its content that Steven Spielberg used them as a point of reference in the making of the movie ‘Saving Private Ryan’ so that the scene of the D-Day landing looked as real as it could and Capa’s images captured that moment so well.
 

War Photography of the 1800's

 War Photography from the 1800's - Mathew Brady

Mathew Brady was an American photographer born in New York, in 1822.  He opened his first photographic studio in 1844. He had a vision to do something that hadn't really been done before; he wanted to bring the reality of the American Civil War to the public through a collection of photographic images taken by him and a group of other photographers he had hired. Before the images were released the newspapers would unrealistically illustrate the war and they were never a true representation of what was actually happening. But then the American public could see what was really happening to their sons, brothers and fathers.
            He and his men would travel around the battlefields with travel wagons that doubled up as a darkroom for them to be able to develop the images whilst away. They used large box-like cameras so they were not able to capture actual action shots in the battlefield. They would take photos of artillery, railways, and soldiers at the camp-sites or stood in battlefields, portraits of generals and captains of the armies but also documented the dead fallen soldiers in the battlefields and the general aftermath of war. The public hadn't seen images like this before that showed how brutal the reality of war is.
            I think that because of the type of camera equipment he would have been using, the way the pictures were taken for example, the images of soldiers sat around at camp-sites, the soldiers always look as though they are posing, but obviously this would be down to the camera as they had to stand still in order for the image to not come out blurry and that’s also why they didn't take any images during the battles as they wouldn't of actually come out.
            I think that as it goes for the beginning of war photography Mathew Brady and his men definitely paved the way for photographers to document war. It bought to light for the first time the brutal consequences of war. I think that back then it would have been a shock for people to see this and when we look back at these images now and compare them to what war is like today, the images just show that war always has a disastrous effect and shows that people die, something that is common in war photography regardless of the war it is covering.