Imagine opening a magazine one day and seeing a photograph of your sisters mutilated body and face twisted with the metal of a trainwreck. Imagine being able to see her face, the pain of her death still frozen upon it. Perhaps you already knew your sister had died and were wanting more information on the events. Or maybe you had no idea yet, and you were learning for the first time, in the worst way.
Since 9/11 it seems like we are bombarded daily with images of terrorism and war, though none so graphic of those from the actual attacks. The most recent attack on March 11 brought a new onslaught of these images. Bloody faces, bodies strewn about the ground, noble mourners with candlelit faces. But one image in particular caught my attention because it showed a recognizable woman dead in the wreckage. When I saw the photo I thought to myself, “if that was my mom, I would know it.”
Pictures like this are nothing new. One can look back on photographs of war throughout history and see that some of the most riveting images of the casualties contain recognizable faces. For example, one of the most well-known pictures from the Vietnam War is of an execution of a member of the Vietcong in which the viewer can clearly see his face. So why did this photograph bother me so much?
The photograph offended me because I thought on a personal level about it. I imagined how that woman’s family might feel seeing that kind of a picture of their loved one, and I empathized with them. There is a certain amount of privacy we all deserve in life and death, and I thought that the photographer had crossed the line. Another photo in the same spread even showed the police trying to hang blankets to hide the dead from the public. Maybe they were more worried about the photographers.
The other side of this argument is that this is a violent and graphic event and it needs to be shown as it is so people can understand. Perhaps it is necessary to sacrifice the feelings of the few (family and friends) for the knowledge of the masses. Choosing not to publish those pictures could be seen as hiding the reality of war, and reducing its importance. I wondered if there was any way to present the events in an effective manner without publishing this type of picture.
Looking back through the images published on 9/11, I see the towers burning and crumbling, people running from the dust cloud, fireman climbing amidst the rubble. The most graphic pictures were of people who were injured but alive and being treated. The one image of the dead was of a covered body on a stretcher. I found a picture of an identifiable man being carried away from the ruins, but the caption didn’t say if he was dead or injured. For me the most shocking pictures were of people jumping from the towers. Again I was able to imagine myself in that place, and I felt sick and sad. Also, I got more out of reading personal accounts of the events than many of the pictures.
Since I am studying photography and working for the Free Press, ethical issues like this are important for me to research. But for me its not just about the laws, its about what I believe and what my boundaries are. Photographing an event such as war or terrorism is a difficult thing for anyone, but I think it is possible to make images that effectively present the subject and don’t hurt yet more people. Perhaps that is the challenge for a photographer; it may even be my challenge one day.
Iris Burke can be contacted at [email protected]