War photography has long been censored to the public but some of the most thought provoking images of war havent been of dead bodies and atrocities. An example of this is Roger Fenton's picture of a landscape where a battle had previously been fought. In replace of bodies there are a mass of canonballs scattered on the ground. The eariness of the picture is very strong and powerful yet the content of the picture is not at all graphic in the sense ofdecaying bodies that in more recent times have been seen.
Tony Vaccaro enlisted in the U.S Army in 1943 and soon took some of the most powerful and iconic photographs of World War Two. He used an Argus C-3 camera which was an indestructible ametuer camera. He not only captured the war through his camera but he was also an actual soldier which ment he caught the every day struggles of civilians and soldiers alike. This also ment that Vaccaro had no dark room to develop his film. He managed to devise a way to develop his films with four helmets and chemicals he found in a destroyed developers shop.
War photography causes outrage, controversy and in some cases has the abiltiy to change peoples opinions on whole wars and campaigns. The image of the naked, burning Vietnamese girl photographed by Nick Ut was one of the factors that made the American people question the Vietnam war. The photograph was so shocking and powerful that it has become one of the most recognised war images. In a simular case, the photo of a Vietcong prisoner being executed on the street was caught on camera and filmed yet the photo is more powerful and had a much more profound effect on those who saw it. Again, it lead to the American people questioning the Vietnam war.
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