A World In Pictures- Anya Slepyan

Photography, like writing, is a multi-faceted field. Used for entertainment as well as artistic purposes, photographs and literature can delight and inspire wide audiences. But photography has an advantage over writing in that even the most amateur photographer can deliver shocking truth at the click of a button, while an author must labor over her words, struggling to turn her thoughts into coherent prose that might arrest a readers’ attention and at the same time provide a flash of insight to some idea or hidden truth. Writing may be a more personal method of communication, but a photograph can display an unmistakable and unforgettable message to millions of people in an instant. This unique power is best exemplified in the field of photojournalism, which allows people who are far removed from conflicts and issues such as poverty, famine, and disease to better understand the suffering and dire situations of others.

Some examples of the persuasive power of photographs are violent and disturbing images captured during the Vietnam War, which lead to mass protest in the United States and eventually the end of the war. These photographs are representative of a subgenre of photojournalism, known as combat photography. In fact, combat photography was created before the broader use of photojournalism, as it was pioneered during the American Civil War. Because of the limited technology of the day (photographs required between ten seconds and several minutes of exposure), there were no pictures taken during the actual fighting. However, civil war photographers such as Matthew Brady, Timothy O’Sullivan, and Andrew Gardner captured the moments before battles and after them.

 This image shows dead Union and Confederate soldiers after the Battle of Gettysburg

The result was hundreds of shocking images, displaying the carnage and violence of the war. Photo after photo showing dead bodies strewn across battlefields made their way into the eyes of the public, facilitated by exhibits such as Brady’s “The Dead of Antietam” in New York City. Although the Civil War was the bloodiest ever fought on American soil, the truth was that most people, especially in the northern states, had no idea of the realities of the war. However, the graphic combat photographs left little to the imagination, allowing for a much deeper understanding of the physical and emotional toll of the war. This had a lasting impact on American society. Previous images of handsome heroes on horseback were replaced by graphic illustrations of mutilated bodies, somewhat dampening American zeal for armed conflict. Combat photographers forced Americans to come to terms with the brutal realities of war; a feat that would have been impossible using any other medium than photography.