“Show me the bodies”
(Stefan Zaklin/EPA)
The New York Times has an interesting article enitled “Show Me The Bodies” comparing war photography in Iraq with that in Vietnam, specifically with regard to images of dead U.S. soldiers being published in U.S. newspapers, and contains comments from photographers Stefan Zaklin, Ashley Gilbertson & Chris Hondros.
Choice quote from Stefan, discussing why a picture he took of a U.S. captain who was shot and killed entering a house in Fallujah (above) was published in Europe but not in America:
“There’s really no way to know why this image wasn’t published at all in the United States,” he wrote in the blog Fabrica Forma Fotografia. “Every editor — whether a photo editor or their superior — who made the decision not to publish this picture had a reason. They might all sound different after one listen. But listen again, and you will hear the grinding wheels of the free market turning American journalism into dust.”
Digging up his original blog articles reveals an extensive and well-thought-out two articles, which are well worth a read:
