Annotated Bibliography
In my research paper, I will explore the effects of war photography on social awareness about the consequences of wars and how this awareness might help to terminate the wars. In this paper, I will mainly concentrate on photography of current wars in the Middle East. One could argue that if the spread of war photos would contribute to ending wars, or, on the contrary, that war photos lead to public indifference and numbness due to repetitive exposure to such tragic photos.
“The Photographer Who Broke the Internet’s Heart.” BBC News. 31 Mar. 2015. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.
This BBC article reports aboutthe wide spread of theheart breaking photo of a Syrian child who had her hands raised to surrender, thinking the camera was a weapon. This photo, which was originally taken in 2014 at a refugee camp in Syria, went viral in March 2015 and attracted a lot of attention. The author states that people sharing the photo were touched by the “fear in the child’s eyes”. Osman Sağırlı, Turkish photojournalist who took this photo, claims that photos of children in refugee camps are the most revealing about the true consequences of wars. He further explains that children, with their pure innocence, reflect their inner feelings through these images.
The information provided in this photo seems credible since BBC Trending has traced down the photographer of this image to give details about the context and origin of this photo. BBC itself is a reliable news source. In fact, the goal of this article is to inform the audience about the credibility of this image after its wide spread in social networks. Moreover, the photographer of this image is a well-known Turkish photojournalist who has worked for Türkiye newspaper for 25 years covering wars and he has provided detailed information about the location and the date of the photo.
This source directly shows the importance and effects of war photography on social awareness and how a single image can move so many hearts around the world. This image reveals how a thoughtful war photo is able to attract public attention without exposing any direct violence and to inform the audience about the wars’ aftermath.
Sontag, Susan. On Photography. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977. Print.
In the first chapter of the book “On Photography”, Susan Sontag claims that the war photos cannot alter public opinions without the existence of “appropriate context of feeling and attitude” (Sontag 12). As evidence, she refersto the photographs of the Civil war battlefields by Mathew Brady, which were not effective in preventing people to continue with the Civil war. She elaborates that photographs cannot form a “moral position” but certainly can strengthen an existing one (Sontag 13). Yet, Sontag believes that photographs are much more powerful than moving images in impressing the public opinion about an issue. As an example, she refers to aniconic photo form Napalm Attack portraying a naked Vietnamese child running and screaming in a highway, which was published on the front page of newspapers in 1972 and states that this photo was more effective in developing the public disgust against the VietnamWar than any videos.
The information provided in this book is reliable based on the actual evidences and strong arguments made throughout the book. The source mainly intends to analyze the social and moral impacts of different types of photography and hence reveals no bias. This book has a very wide audience and includes any one interested in visual culture and photography. This book aims to demonstrate how a strong message gets carried via an image. Farrar, Straus and GirouxCover art is a well-established publishing industry and hence adds to the credibility of the source.
This source directly relates to the topic of this research and demonstrates how war photography can play an important role in rising public awareness. Although Sontag believes that war photos by themselves cannot create any political and moral standing, she does not ignore their influence on intensifying an existing view. This source introduced me a different view on the actual impacts of war photography and intrigued me to explore the solid effects of war photos more precisely.
Stallabrass, Julian. “Not In Our Name.” Art Monthly 293 (2006): 1-4. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.
In “Not In Our Name,”Stallabrass discusses the influence of war photography on shifting the public opinion against a conflict. He mentions the role of the iconic images of Vietnam War in shaping protests against the war throughout the U.S. Stallabrasslater claims that memory of such of images, even influences the present’s public position about a current conflict (Stallabrass 1). He supports his claim by comparing the images of Vietnam War and Iraq war, and how striking similarities of those images can bring back the memory of Vietnam War and create the samerevulsion against the current conflict. Stallabrass also brings actual evidence of the role of the Vietnam War photos in creating the Anti-war movement and how it led Nixon to “pursue a program inwhich the Vietnamese would take over the prosecution ofthe war” (Stallabrass 4).
This article is a reliable source since it has been published in “Art Monthly” which is a crediblemagazine. The author is a scholar in the field and supports his claims with actual evidences and uses a critical voice in his arguments. This article addresses a large audience interested in photojournalism and humanism, and intends to present a different picture of Iraq war through the lens of Vietnam War.
This source perfectly supports the argument of this paper about the undeniable role of photojournalism in shaping public views regarding a conflict. In contrast to Sontag, who believes that photos cannot create a new public standpoint, Stallabrass argues that photos are capable of engraving unforgettable images on public minds and thus influencing the public opinions even in next generations.
