Saturday, July 13, 2013

Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag Response



Part 1:
    1. Does the new technology that is coming out in photography change the quality of the photograph?
    2. Should they censor photography and television during war times?
    3. Why don't they show deaths in Europe like they do in Africa?
     Part 2:
2. Should they censor photography and television during war times?

In Susan Sontag’s piece “Regarding the Pain of Others,” she talks about the photos being taken by photographers of people about to die and after.  She talks about a certain photograph of a Vietnamese prisoner being shot in the street near photographers. I remember seeing that photograph in my history of photography class last semester, it is a very powerful photograph, you could see the fear in the prisoners face and you could see the chief’s face looks stone cold with no remorse and the soldier in the back showing his anger towards the prisoner. Part of Sontag’s piece reminded me of the time I went to the Tolerance Museum and seeing photographs of dead bodies as well as people on the verge of death. Through the middle of the museum, I remember crying until I left because the experience was so powerful. It would be pretty hard for one not to be affected by the photographs and video clips of what the Jewish people went through for those years. I don’t think they should censor photographs that are shown in museums, newspapers, or galleries because I feel that people should see what others got through and see during the war. They should also make it equal by showing the death of the “enemy” as well as our own soldiers to show all sides of the war. Television is another issue because children have an easier access to televisions. It’s hard for adults to avoid the news during war times and it would be harder for them to explain the pictures being shown.  Those types of pictures would also be frightening to children.  Yes these types of pictures would be hard for the people who know the victims in a personal level but they can use those picuresas a form of grieving as wells as showing others that war may not be the answer.  
 
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