In modern society, photographic images are the principal access to realities of which we have no direct experience.
For a war, an atrocity, a pandemic, a natural disaster to become a subject of concern, it has to reach people through the internet, television, magazines, newspapers.
The upsetting photography have the quality of being memorable – that is, unforgettable.
The photo is like a quotation or proverb – easy to retain. All of us mentally stock hundred s of photographic images, subject to instant recall. Don McCullin’s image of the shock shocked marine from the Tet Offensive in Vietnam.
Photographs identify events. Photographs make events important and memorable. Narrative makes us understand but photographs make us remember.
In photojournalism, sometimes labelled ‘concerned photography’ or ‘the photography of conscience’ no-one has surpassed in breadth, directness, in intimacy and unforgettability the work of Don McCullin. He brings back news from Hell, he wants to sadden, he was to arouse.
There is thought that images no longer have the impact that they once had. Michael Ignatieff has written that ‘war photography, thanks to TV, has become banal. We are flooded with images of atrocity on a daily basis and they become transmute. But it is also essential to enlighten the world, to make people aware of what humans are capable of . The atrocious images should haunt us. They may only be snap shots of the full reality but they perform an immensely positive function. The images says ‘keep these events in your mind.’ the image is an invitation to pay attention, to reflect, to learn.
They provoke questions – Who caused what the picture shows? Who is responsible? Is it excusable? Was it inevitable? Is it an event we should be challenging? Photographs can start us on our way to asking these questions.
The Bigger Picture 