Images of War

This web page has been recommended by:

• Cable In The Classroom (Veteran’s Day Close-Up )
• PBS ( The Power of Pictures: from “Reporting America At War”)

INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND:
From the Civil War to Wars in Iraq and the Mideast, photographic images have played a major role in how we perceive and understand conflicts. On this web site, we offer some of the still photos taken by photographers: some have been published in newspapers and online, some have not. (In addition, you will find resources related to previous wars and more recent conflicts).

As students consider photographs/video, they should keep in mind the following questions:

– who took the images and for what purpose?
– who/what is being shown? who/what is not being shown? why or why not?
– how might the current conflict restrict a photographer?
– are war photographers free to go where they want or are they accompanied by
military personnel?
– how might the “embedding” of news personnel help/restrict our understanding?
– how might a specific photo/video be used to sway public opinion?
– has your local newspaper printed pictures of people injured or killed? If not, why not?

Blog:  Teaching Kids to Read They Images They See
Lesson plan: The Impact of Images: Considering the Place of Photojournalism Today
Recommended reading: Media Literacy Skills: Interpreting Tragedy
Exhibit educator guide:  War Photography: Images of Armed Conflict & Its Aftermath

 IN THE NEWS: recent news articles
(listed chronologically; other background readings follow below)

• AP Photos: Day 17 Ukraine War
• Reading The Pictures (Twitter Feed)
• Week 2: Russia Invades Ukraine
• Before & After: Devastating Images from Ukraine
• Ukraine War In Images
• In Pictures: The Inside Battle for Ukraine
• How one photograph changed the course of history
• The Delicate Handling of Images of War (Sept. 2013)
• Images of Vietnam War That Defined an Era
• Rare photos from the Vietnam War
• AP Corrects Bataan Death March Photo Caption (March 2010)
• Behind The Scenes: To Publish or Not (Sept 09)
• Few in U.S. See Jazeera’s Coverage of Gaza War
• Arab media portray Palestinians as courageous victims
• Israel Puts Media Clamp on Gaza/  Online, Two Pictures of the Israeli Military
• Frustrated reporters locked out of Gaza war zone/Foreign journalists barred from Gaza (Jan. 2009)
• The Painful Images of War (NYT August 2008)
• Hanging of Saddam Hussein: Media Deals With Images (Dec.2006)
• A Chilling Photograph’s Hidden History
• Skepticism Rampant Over War ‘Fauxtography’
• In Wars, Quest for Media Balance Is Also a Battlefield
• Media Fatique
• Is America watching a different war? (Democracy Now)
• For Photographer, Lebanon a Different Kind of War
• Photos: Lebanon: A Tale of Two Nations
• Object Lessons: Photos That Open our Eyes to War (WP July 2006)
• Video-sharing sites unfiltered images of war to the screen
• Show Me The Bodies (NYT, June 2006)
• Real or fake (National Journal, April 2006)
• Military tightens use of electronic media (Sept.2005)
• Gathering views images of U.S. war dead (Aug. 2005)
• Ethical double standard for war photographs? (July 2005)
• Bosnian video of atrocities shakes families (June 2005)
• Prison Images (of Saddam Hussein) Raise Issues for World Media
• Portrait of War: Unseen photos, untold stories (LA Times May 2005)
• Not a pretty picture: why won’t US papers run graphic images (May 2005)
• Readers and journalists discuss the value of graphic images in newspapers. (March 2005)
• Images of War American Journalism Review (Oct/Nov.2004)
• Panel: U.S. newspapers running more tragic photos in wake of 9/11
• Selling War (propaganda exhibit)
• TV images driving public discourse on war (May 2004)

To locate the latest photos: go to    http://news.yahoo.com

War Poster Parody   1  2

Other Sources of Images  from the War with Iraq

Background Readings/Resources:

• American Photography: Photography & War (PBS)
  Lesson: “To Censor or Not To Censor? The Power of War Photos”
  In this lesson students analyze photographs of a particular 20th century war and debate government censorship of photos taken during wartime.
  http://www.pbs.org/ktca/americanphotography/teachersguide/war_parent.html
• Committee to Project Journalists
• Critically Viewing Photographs: Civil War, Lesson Plan
• Digital camera exposes wartime brutality
• Images of War: Combat Photography (1918-1971)
• Images of War (Civil War) Lesson Plan
• Images of War: WWII Posters
• Journalists at War
• LA Times Admits War Photographer Altered Image      AP Story
• Military Censorship of War Photographs
• Militia’s Other Weapons: Videos
• Pentagon Lets Media See Return of US War Dead  (April 2009)
• Photographer fired for taking photos of solider’s caskets/controversy 
• Photoshopping from the Front Lines
• Photo Wars (Mother Jones, May 2004)  Torture Photos
• Shock value: Horror of terrorism playing on home TV screens
• Still Photos Capture The War’s Real Deal
• Terrorists’ visual warfare uses the media as weapon
• Theatre of Combat (Art News March 2007)
• The Spanish-American war, in Motion Pictures
• Through the Camera’s Lens: The Civil War in Photographs (Lesson Plan)
• U.S., media fight battle of images
  White House ban on photographs of slain soldiers questioned by many.
• War on Film (PBS: Art In The 21st Century)
• War Photographer Warns of Censorship, Challenges
• War Photography’s Power Page 1  Page 2
• War In Iraq: Coordinates Of Conflict (photographic exhibit)

Links to other war images:

Recommended Texts/Videos

• The Art of War: The Posters of World War II   (Elem-Middle School)
• Hollywood Goes to War: How Politics, Profits and Propaganda Shaped World War II Movies
• Cameras on the Battlefield- Photos of War (Middle School)
• BOLDPRINT  Images of War (High School)
• Faces of The Enemy (video)
  (available from California Newsreel)
• Memories of WWII: Photographs from the Archives of the AP
  (2004)  ISBN: 0810950138
• Civil War Photographers and Their Work: Portraits of War
  Twenty First Century Books (1998)  ISBN: 0-7613-3019-4
• Shooting Under Fire: The World of the War Photographer, Peter Howe,
  Publisher: Arisan Sales;  ISBN: 1579652158