My last tutorial discussing Picture Stories and Photography reminded me of a year 12 Modern History lesson, when the teacher was showing us horrific pictures from the Vietnam War, he then went on to talk about a massacre in which innocent civilians, including women and children were brutally raped, pillaged and murdered by mentally frustrated and callous US soldiers. He wasn’t able to show us the pictures from this as they were incredibly disturbing. A girl in my class was outraged by the photographer simply photographing the situation and not helping the Vietnamese villagers. While I understand her frustration at such an inhumane act, I tried explaining to her that the photographer did the best he could, by capturing what was happening the soldiers involved were able to later be charged and imprisoned for their crimes. If the photographer had put down his camera and tried to stop the killings then he too would have been killed and the crimes would have most likely never even been known of, let alone brought to justice.
The tutorial taught me how powerful the inclusion of a photo or picture story can be to an article, or how a picture story on its own can be emotive and effective.
This photo is quite confronting, but it is part of humanity’s history and says more than words could…
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