War photography — The frames of chaos and miseries.
Tags: Photograph, War Photography, Illustration, Art, Digital Artists

We all share the history of war, either through our ancestors or ourselves. War not only represents an action taken to conquer a place or for power. War is also an uproar against injustice and inequality. Any action to reclaim what was ours is also a war. And these commotions live in every moment of war through war photographs.

Since the inception of the community, there has been war. And we have been conveyed the agonies of war through war photographs. It takes us to the war place and shows us what we were unaware of. These pictures evoke real emotions. We experience reality and make us hope for the better.

There has never been a more influential medium to encounter the terrible and inhumane reality. We were taught about the horrific history of wars through this immersive medium. Photographs that engage the entirety of our senses, not just our eyes and ears. It makes us dive in every dilemma in devastating and remarkable ways. The war and its purpose might be different but the intention is the same as every war photographs to, make us withstand horrors and then to end them.

The trauma every war photographs goes through is extremely tough. They watch innocents die, family departs and an entire generation butchered. Concealing the terror within, they continue capturing as they are messengers to rest of the world of how war can destroy an entire community. Some photographers even fall into anxiety and depression, the study says.

And throughout all of their captures there will be a feeling of helplessness, of not being able to do anything for the suffering of others, and the steady terror and danger they submit themselves and their family to. Photographers wanted to educate people in the world about the lives of those trapped in difficult situations such as poverty and living in war zones etc. They use the emotional power of still images to captivate people and make them pay attention to subjects they would rather ignore.

It seems like a reasonable belief that the closer we get to realities, the more we will learn, and the more we will understand the absurdity of our ways. But showing horrors doesn’t necessarily end them. When it comes to war photography, each photograph has gone through the learning curve of balancing shock and developing a unique approach to storytelling.

Different approaches to exemplifying violence and war have different impacts. The more effective photographs are modest and engaged story conveying photographs. They help us connect with the pain and an urge to reach out to them. It tells us how we reached here and what our ancestors have gone through for the same. It gives a reason to live kinder every day for the soldiers who live for us and leaves for us. These photographs paralyze our intuition and enhance our ability for meaningful change.

War photography also grappled with these challenges at its inception. Some of the earliest photographs were of dead bodies on the battlefield. Those photographs were fundamentally clicked with the hope that just the very act of showing this dreadfulness would stop the war. And somewhere with the expectation of preventing such another calamity falling onto a nation.

The air around you becomes a hammer that is going to crush you into pieces. You have a hard time getting your thoughts together. They’re frozen into a million pieces in your brain. You can’t think. The bombing is so strong, it destabilizes you. And the smell, the disgusting smell. Then there’s the noise, the screams. You’re trying to focus on what you’re going to do when it stops, which way you’re going to go, who’s going to be reliable.- Patrick Chauvel

These words represent the atrociousness faced by every war photographers. Looking at the war captures years later, when we have grown overhauled to stories coming with pictures, they stir our thoughts. We don’t know their names, their backgrounds, or the traits that made up their lives. But war photographs connect us with their repulsiveness and make us find a common ground. Even though photographers wish people would look more closely at these dooming images, there is evidence that this may hurt more than it helps maybe we grow impassive to these images. Even though to feel something we have to put aside the fear and accept the reality.

The war photographs show no pictures of fantasies or cooked up stories. It rather evokes an emotional resonance through striking and long takes on the empty faces of survivors and observers.

Besides dulling us, images of death, violence, and horror deeply influence us without our knowledge. Shocking and sensational images of war and suffering are increasingly appearing in our current media situation and have become hard to distinguish our life from them. Because ultimately the pain and suffering will knock our humanity and make us do something better.

The problem with war pictures does not universally mean the same things to all people. It relies on what side you are on. If not distributed carefully and responsibly, they can end up serving a very different purpose than what they were intended for. While you and I may be terrified witnessing the murder of a person it might convey some different phase of emotions to people who are connected. The people on the opposite side of the struggle feel satisfying revenge witnessing the death of their enemy through a war picture. That’s why it is said that a war picture is too strong in conveying emotions to people than any other mediums. It sticks on to our mind and keeps us awake in the night.

Certainly, all media are eventually used to represent war. Photography, radio, television and now virtual presence. The mere representation of war is not as effective as a devoted one. Here comes the influence of photographs. They are more immersive and overwhelming. Photographs are as desirable to just show the pain, rather than learn the very difficult way of learning it from different sources. It is a medium of an entirely new approach to the storytelling of agonies and miseries.