colour photos, viewed in black and white

[darren_stranger]

Flicking through the Big Issue last night, i came across an article with samples from some 'Photo of the Year' photojournalism awards. One image really jumped out at me - a picture of a protestor being dragged away by police, thumb pushed up under his nose, forehead dragged back so only the whites of his eyes were showing, one hand clenched in a fist and the other grasping at the air. Without knowing what the protest was about or what the story was, it just stood out to me as brilliantly capturing a moment of human anguish and desperation. I flicked back a page and read the caption to the photo: "Evacuation of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip".

Then something strange happened. When i turned the page and looked at the photo again, it had changed. Instead of a picture of a terrified protestor, i was looking at a photo of a religious fanatic, his hands clutching the air not in desperation but in rage, body rigid with stubbornness rather than fear, the hidden eyes not wild with panic but burning with uncompromising zealotry, and extremist slogans on his lips instead of a cry for help.

It can be quite startling to have your own prejudices highlighted in such a sudden and obvious way.

Comments

[monkeywarrior.livejournal.com]

i find how the media positions viewers to be very interesting, very very interesting

[strang-er.livejournal.com]

I was more interested in how my own views of a wrong or right 'side' coloured how i interpreted a given picture, though i guess those views are shaped largely by media coverage.

[dotar-sojat.livejournal.com]

There is a very famous picture from the Vietnam war- the one with the South Vietnamese general shooting a guy in the head. It pretty much sums up the brutality of that conflict.

I read an interview with the guy who took that picture. He always felt bad about it. What a lot of people don't know about that picture is that the guy being shot was a sniper and had just killed a number of the general's men (and may have been trying to kill the general himself). What a lot of people don't know is that the general brought the Vietnamese army up to a point where people would willing serve in it- not just join as a way to get out of serving jail time.

...something to make you think...

[strang-er.livejournal.com]

Mmm. A picture might be worth 1000 words, but it still may only be half a story.