WAR PORN

You were not supposed to see these
images, no one was. Most are unpub-
lished. Many I don't recall ever have-
seen taken, as if someone had pushed
my butt button in my head. You wake
up in the morning and you can't
remember your nightmare. But you
know it was there. I was there. I'm
the one who took all these pictures.
I know it.

These are not my best pictures. I have
beautiful, dramatic, well-composed
pictures from war and disaster zones.
Landscapes, portraits, details, the
bom and the bang. But this book is
not about the drama of war or the
phony myth of the heroica war photog-
rapher. I'm just trying to start a con-
versation about how we deal withor
don't deal with images of horrific
events. It's an experience: What hap-
ens if I switch to self-censorship.
Mechanism off

We all self-censor. I do. Picture editors do, their usual: refrain being, "Unfortunately, this goes beyond what we can publish." And you do, too! Our brain try to protect us by preventing us from looking. We are