“Photography
is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is
captured forever... it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten
everything.” American Photographer Aaron Siskind states
that photography has many aspects to its fine arts reputation as it gives us a
sense of being. Photography is our very own gratification that we can construct
and modify to create a perspective and perceive it to the world. The power of
photography defines the timing, morality and memory of the moment with one
capture which will imprint into the human mind forever and I completely agree
with him. However, war photojournalism is a subject matter which is hardly ever
discussed as it is important and iconic to modern day society. The digital age
we live in today has effected society as historic photographs aren’t cherished
enough. Technology has significantly enhanced from Robert Capa’s Black and
White era to the ‘Selfie’ generation which has changed the perception of
photography forever. The purpose of combat photojournalism is not to
showcase or glorify violence and suffering with graphic imagery for the sake of
shock value and ratings. War photography allows us as a society to see the
consequences of our military engagements. We need to see the consequences of
our decisions to go to war, or to abstain from war, that we may make an
informed decision as to whether the necessity of that military engagement is
worth the suffering and death that follows. Additionally, we cannot allow
ourselves to be lulled into the convenient attitude that war is something that
happens "Over there" and go about our day. We who are not "Over
there" fighting a war are still responsible for our government and the
choices that it makes because we can't see the conflict first hand, we have
photojournalists that send us combat imagery. That also doesn't mean that war
photography is always meant to prevent or halt war though it's a philosophical
debate that doesn't belong in the photography section, sometimes a war may be
justified to continue even with full knowledge of the suffering that follows,
depending on situation. It may even lead a nation to engage in a war, if they
see atrocities committed by another country that they simply cannot abide.
Regardless, combat photography shows us that our military conflicts have
consequences, that real people suffer sometimes terribly and that everyone
involved is human. My objective for this whole war theme was to replicate the
advantages and disadvantages of war. Many people believe that war is a memory
which has destroyed the nation, in fact its more than that. The official
definition of war is “a state
of armed conflict between different countries or different groups within a
country.” However, to me, War is a gratification that we should cherish and
desire as these violent memories and actions only make us stronger, together we
should remember the good and bad doings as it is one of the main reasons why we
have what we got today. These photographs depict toy soldiers stuck into the
grass, with digital manipulation used to replicate the war periods. I have
chosen these photographs as my final photographs because it has the features
and admiration of being the most similar to relating to the theme of war. These
photographs were taken in Primrose Hill where the grass can be manipulated into
a war battlefield. The composition of the photograph is really effective as it
portrays the depth of field. The depth has managed to capture the detail of the
main focus. The camera angle and position is well positioned as the perspective
is manipulated into thinking that this photograph was taken in a historic time
period where combat is placed. Additionally, I have edited these photographs on
Adobe Photoshop by changing the effects such as using grayscale and sepia to
create a historic and ancient ambience in the photographs. I have also used the
tilt-shift effect to create a diorama illusion in some of these photographs. These
effects help to establish the detail, tone and texture of the photograph as
well as building a illusion to fabricate a reality. Moreover, the lighting in
this photograph is really effective as the bright exposure captures the dark
shadows and highlights. This helps to establish the depressing and dark mood which
depicts the violence and conflict in this photograph. In hindsight, I believe I
could have improved this photograph by using a different prop. This means I
could have used a more technical and realistic toy soldier to play a part in
this photograph, just like David Levinthal who uses realistic toys to create
intriguing scenes. The project came out of my desire to capture how our society
is evolved around social media, rather than focusing on the aggression and
violence around the world. We are so consumed by social media that we create a
hyper reality to live in, which is built upon deception conceive into a utopian
realm that doesn’t exist. Conflict is increasing significantly and will only
become a superior problem.
