a friend, brad,, mentioned something awhile back that has stuck with me. he talked about how deceptive photographs are. they look like a slice of reality but they aren’t. i read susan sontag’s “on photography” soon after brad’s statement and began to understand a little more of what he meant. that’s why i thought i would share this article today. it is about one of the best known photos of the vietnam conflict. to quote the article.
Adams wrote in Time magazine, “The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them, but photographs do lie, even without manipulation. They are only half-truths. What the photograph didn’t say was, ‘What would you do if you were the general at that time and place on that hot day, and you caught the so-called bad guy after he blew away one, two or three American soldiers?’
if you have a minute and you’re into photography it is well worth the few minutes it will take to read it.