Sometimes photography can be fatal.

[bobt]

This is the sort of shot none of use wants to take - but it is so graphic in the way that it captures the end of someone's life. It makes you think.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-03/war-photographer-captures-last-moments-of-her-life/8493566

[Fettator]

Friggen Hell......being ex military......I got nuthn........RIP.

[Glenda]

Very sad. Certainly shows how fragile we are as the camera and memory card obviously survived the blast whereas the photographers didn't. I was pleased to read they sought approval from the family and unit before releasing the photos.

[chaosboi]

A strong example of the decisive moment.


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[Mark L]

I saw this and it's very opportunistic and in some ways amazing.
But I dislike it.
People shouldn't have to die this way doing things that I doubt make a difference.
The photo wasn't released because it will make a difference.

[bobt]

I saw this and it's very opportunistic and in some ways amazing.
But I dislike it.
People shouldn't have to die this way doing things that I doubt make a difference.
The photo wasn't released because it will make a difference.


I think I'd have to disagree on this one. Photos like this can make a tremendous difference. The reality of war is abhorrent, and for the most part we are insulated against the harsh reality and the horror of war. Bringing death into our lounge rooms can be voyeuristic, but it can also make people realise that death is very real and happens every day - often for no real reason or gain. There are so many dreadful images of war which have made a difference - that girl in Vietnam who was napalmed is one example. Otherwise, people like her, or the soldiers in the more recent photo die in vain, achieving nothing.

I'm sure that part of the motive for publishing it was to sell newspapers. However, I'm also sure that if we sweep it under the carpet and turn our eyes away those people will have become just anonymous victims whose lives were lost in vain.

I don't like the fact that we humans constantly inflict death and destruction on each other - but i also feel that if we hide the reality of war it becomes somehow sanitised and we just talk of it in terms of "collateral damage". Those who die deserve more than that.

[Ionica]

Reading Post no. 5 made me think of the Vietnam War as well, and how coverage of it changed peoples' attitudes. Images of the situation with people fleeing from the Middle East to Europe, and it's consequences, are a recent example with the same ( to an extent ) effect.

[Steve Axford]

I don't think the image says very much at all. It is certainly an amazing photo in that it catches an explosion, mid blast, with people who are about to die, but it just shows the explosion and nothing of the damage that must have been done to the people by that blast. It's just a sterile photo of an industrial accident about to happen in about 1 millisecond. Would it have been published if it had shown bits of people disintegrating? I doubt it, but it would have been much more powerful.

[bobt]

I don't think the image says very much at all. It is certainly an amazing photo in that it catches an explosion, mid blast, with people who are about to die, but it just shows the explosion and nothing of the damage that must have been done to the people by that blast. It's just a sterile photo of an industrial accident about to happen in about 1 millisecond. Would it have been published if it had shown bits of people disintegrating? I doubt it, but it would have been much more powerful.

I don't believe we have to see the actual disintegration of human flesh to comprehend what's about to happen, and I don't see that as something the family would want published anyway. Sometimes our mind's eye is all that's necessary. I friend of mine is a war photographer and has an image showing three happy young boys sitting on a bench. The caption tells us how they were blown to pieces shortly after the photo was taken. I don't need to see that actually happening to comprehend the enormity of the event.

[Steve Axford]

But it hardly captures the reality of death and it can't really be compared to the famous war photos as it doesn't really show anything of war. A memorial of an unfortunate accident.

[mudman]

personally i think this image says a lot of thinks on many levels
i also think, and some will disagree, that it should be an automatic winner of the Pulitzer prize
it has impact , shows the fragility of life, and would be a fitting memorial to those killed and injured
just my 2 cents

[bobt]

But it hardly captures the reality of death and it can't really be compared to the famous war photos as it doesn't really show anything of war. A memorial of an unfortunate accident.

Unfortunately, this is symptomatic of an ever desensitised world. People seem to need increasingly realistic depictions of violence with each representation needing to be more graphic than the last. It is evident in games, books, movies and it is a thirst for visual pornography which will have no end except in a re-introduction of Colosseums and live blood sports like UFC. Really, you need to ask yourself why you need to have the blood and gore so visually explicit when anyone with a shred of humanity can clearly see the implications of a situation. The visual icing on the cake achieves nothing more except to satisfy that warped visceral thirst for what would be an explicit and voyeuristic intrusion into someone's life and death. I really don't understand how anyone could not be moved by photos such as this without the additional unnecessary blood and gore. Dismissing it as simply an unfortunate accident is to trivialise someone's death.

[Steve Axford]

You are making this photo into something that it's not and I am not people who need increasingly realistic depictions of anything. The photograph is of two Afghan soldiers who are covering their ears when firing a mortar, and the mortar happens to explode. A freak photo, but very little to do with war, which has been implied. I don't like gratuitous violence, and in a way this is just that, because it has no meaning. We don't even know anything about the Afghan soldiers in the photo, but I suppose they are only Afghans, so unimportant.

[bobt]

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.