In the last, most cruel and bloody, in the entire history of mankind, battle with the fascist invaders, Soviet soldiers amazed the world with outstanding heroism and feats, which have no equal in the world. This terrible war plunged humanity into chaos, but our people went through all the trials and emerged victorious. Victory in the Great Patriotic War is the greatest feat of the Soviet people. We are the descendants of that military generation and see the past war through the eyes of cameramen and photojournalists. In this post, I want to talk about people who, as a rule, remained behind the scenes. These are the heroes, thanks to whom we have documentary footage of cinema and photographic equipment, which dispassionately tell us about all the horrors of the war, cities taken and abandoned, troop movements, partisan attacks and the heroism of military and rear everyday life, the liberation of the country, and then all of Europe. I also want to show you a photo report from the exhibition of photographs of military photojournalists from the ROSPHOTO collection.
War always breaks out suddenly, although a generation later it will seem inevitable to historians. In 1941, the most terrible, closest, most expensive - the Great Patriotic War began. They say that without huge losses the Nazis could not be stopped ...
During the four years of the war, cameramen and photojournalists took hundreds of thousands of photographs and shot millions of meters of film. About an hour and a half of each day of the terrible war remained captured. These people went to the front line and filmed from the trenches, from the observation slot of a tank that was the first to enter the battlefield, from the cockpit of an aircraft, through the embrasure of a bunker, from the windows of a burning building ... they filmed from everywhere where the war was rampant. During the most important Battle of Stalingrad, front-line cameramen filmed street battles for the first time. They were dedicated to their cause, their goal and tried to do their job more than professionally, realizing that one day, it could cost them their lives. Instead of protecting themselves once again, the correspondents took care of the correct exposure and the technical quality of the footage. Cameramen risked themselves for close-ups of battles, and photojournalists risked for the sake of one expressive shot. Thanks to them, hundreds of thousands of faces were captured in the photographic chronicle of the war, and people who did not survive that war remained forever alive on the film.
The main task of war correspondents was to capture people fighting at the front - soldiers and commanders of the Red Army, who are well versed in military equipment and combat tactics. Show their initiative, military ingenuity and cunning in the fight against the Nazis. Put on display their hatred of the Nazi invaders, emphasize their stamina, selflessness and discipline in carrying out the orders of the command.
For the first time during the war, correspondents were at the front. Three weeks after the start of the war, about 20 film groups with more than 80 cameramen were working on the most important sectors of the front. Front-line photographs printed on the pages of newspapers dispersed throughout the country in millions of copies. Unfortunately, catastrophically few shots have survived to this day, since at that time people considered it blasphemy to shoot pictures of national grief. It was difficult to explain to the relatives of the victims that their suffering is being filmed for history. Many military journalists wore officer epaulettes and, in difficult times, took the place of the killed officers and even privates. So Pravda employee Borzenko was sent by the editors to cover the actions of the Kerch landing. During the landing, all the officers were killed, and the journalist, as a senior in rank, had to take over the leadership of the defense of the captured "patch". Three days before the arrival of reinforcements, he led the battle. He is the only one of all military journalists who was awarded the title of "Hero of the Soviet Union".
Photojournalists and cameramen witnessed the first major victory of the Soviet people - the defeat of the German armies near Moscow in late 1941 - early 1942. More than 3 million people participated in this battle on both sides. I had to shoot in 35-degree frost. Before shooting, the cameras had to be warmed up under sheepskin coats. Thousands of meters of film shot by cameramen were included in the documentary "The Defeat of the Nazi Troops near Moscow." The film, which was released on February 18, 1942, received the USSR State Prize and the Oscar of the American Film Academy as the best film of the year. For correspondents who filmed the Battle of Kursk, the film set was a minefield. And then the operators did not have long-focus optics. Therefore, to shoot, they had to wait for enemy tanks to approach the trenches. It is known that two documentaries by Soviet cameramen about historical monuments destroyed during the war and the massacres of prisoners of war and civilians became an accusatory document at the Nuremberg trials. Hundreds of military journalists died on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, such as Musa Jalil, a famous poet, journalist, who worked in Moscow before the war, an employee of the army newspaper Courage, who was executed in the Moabit fascist prison in March 1944, and Caesar Kunikov, a Moscow journalist, commander of a paratrooper detachment who died in the battle for Novorossiysk in February 1943.
Georgy Lipskerov. Participated in battles. He was a photojournalist for the newspapers of the 52nd Army and the 2nd Ukrainian Front. Since 1943, he was a member of a group of military documentary filmmakers. He filmed battles near Moscow, near Stalingrad, on the Kursk Bulge.
Photographer Dmitry Baltermants. Worked at Izvestia. Cooperation with the newspaper ended for him with a penal battalion.
Natalya Bode is one of the few women - military photojournalists. Filmed on the South-Western, Central, 1st Belorussian fronts. Went through the whole war
Correspondents pose for each other for a story
Oleg Knorring, a special photographer for the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, and Ivan Malov, a cameraman, are filming the interrogation of a German defector
Soviet photojournalists at the Reichstag building, 1945
Arkady Shaikhet with American reporters on the Oder. 1945 Correspondent of Frontline Illustration, author of the famous Politruk. In the battle near Koenigsberg, together with the driver on an editorial truck, he took fifteen wounded from the battlefield, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
The other day I was lucky enough to visit the state museum and exhibition center ROSPHOTO, where an exhibition of photographs of military photojournalists was presented. The exhibition featured works by the classics of Russian photography - Emmanuil Evzirikhin, Boris Kudoyarov, Ivan Shagin, Sergey Loskutov. We also managed to see pictures of war correspondents - Jean Berland, Alexander Ditlov, Boris Pushkin, Semyon Kolonin, Efim Kopyta, as well as Yu. Pyasetsky and Ya. Tabarovsky. The names of these people have yet to be returned to the history of Russian photography. Most of the photographs are original wartime prints intended for press release. Various photo formats indicate copyright cropping. The exposition also featured works by Ivan Shagin and Emmanuil Evzerikhin, printed by them in the post-war period, and modern prints made from original negatives from the archive of photojournalist Sergei Loskutov.
Photos taken by us in the exhibition center:
Fights for the liberation of Leningrad. The movement of the Red Army troops in the Luga region. January 1944 silver bromide print. photographer Boris Kudoyarov.
August 23, 1942. after a massive raid by Nazi aircraft. Stalingrad 1942. silver bromide print from the author's negative. Photographer Immanuel Nevzerikhin
Hitler's last defenders. Germany, 1945 silver bromide print. Photographer Ivan Shagin.
Leningrad under blockade, 1941. silver bromide print. Komsomol members of the Kirov factory are marching. Photographer Boris Kudiyarov.
Pilot A. Molodchiy with his navigator. 1943 silver bromide print. Photographer Ivan Shagin.
September 1941. Soviet partisan. Digital printing from the author's negative. Photographer Sergey Loskutov.
Stalingrad, August 24, 1942. Silver bromide print IN the photo is a military cameraman A. P. Sof'in. Photographer Emmanuil Nevzerikhin.
Meeting on the Elbe. Photographer Ivan Shagin. Germany, 1945 silver bromide print
Partisan of Ukraine. Photographer Ivan Shagin. Ukraine, 1943. Silver bromide print. (Dear Ukrainians, Savchenko is not your national hero. Your true heroes are girls like the one in the photo above)
Ural - to the front. Photographer Ivan Shagin. Ural, 1942. silver bromide print
The people of Kiev began to restore the city destroyed by the Nazis. Photographer Ivan Shagin. Kyiv, 1944, silver bromide print
The exhibition is held at the State Museum and Exhibition Center "ROSPHOTO". The unique project - "The Great Patriotic War through the eyes of military photographers" included more than 500 photographs taken by the classics of Russian photography, outstanding Soviet photographers. Also at the exhibition, for the first time, a virtual museum project was presented, covering the events of the Second World War from the first days to the capture of Berlin.
More photos from the exhibition:
66 years old, New York:
If you honestly shoot a war, you get an anti-war photo.
The truth does not need to be embellished. You just have to say it, and it is often enough to do it once.
Fear is such a fundamental feeling that it is difficult to define it. But I can tell you what it does to people. If it paralyzes you, it can kill you. But if it makes you see better what's going on around you, it can save your life.
Of course, I never considered myself invulnerable to bullets and projectiles. My legs are full of splinters.
If I could travel back in time and photograph any war? Crusades. The chances of survival would be slim. The scale and means by which the wars were waged at that time is amazing. The Battle of Hastings would have seemed incredible to a modern observer. And the battles of Alexander the Great, when people fought face to face? It's hard to see how they could be forced to do this.
Humanity, of course, has advanced a lot. But in many respects, we are still at a very low stage of development, when violence becomes an instrument for achieving certain goals. I don't know when we'll get rid of it... if we get rid of it at all.
The main weapons during the Rwandan genocide were agricultural tools. Machete. Batons. Axes. Peaks. Face to face. Crowds of helpless people perished. Children. This is not clear to me. I know it was. I saw the consequences and I know that fear and hatred were the cause of everything. But I do not understand how it is possible to force so many people to commit such atrocities, as they say, openly. A bomb can kill many, but it is very impersonal. In Alexander's time, at least, armed men fought armed men. There was some equality. But to use weapons against defenseless people - it just doesn’t fit in my head.
I think now I'm not at all the same as I was at the very beginning. I don't even remember what I was.
If at some point only I can influence the outcome of events, then I stop being a reporter for a while and help people. Several people who were about to be lynched survived because I intervened. I once tried to save a man in Indonesia. People from a mosque in Jakarta were offended that Christians set up a bingo hall next to the mosque. They believed that bingo was a game of chance, and this was against their religious beliefs. Therefore, they attacked the hall and began to kill the Christian guards. When I asked passers-by what happened, one guard ran down the street - the crowd was chasing him. I tried to stop the mob from killing him. Three times they actually stopped. One of them wanted to slit the guard's throat, but then I got on my knees and begged him not to do it. And he obeyed. He lowered the knife and helped the guard to his feet. But then the crowd attacked me with threats. They pressed me, pushed me back. At this time, others finished off the guard. I think if one of them had hit me, then they would have finished with me at the same time. Then I started photographing the guard again, but they didn't care. They let me take pictures. But stop yourself - no.
It seems to me that the cause of most of the conflicts that I have reported on was not religion. Territories, yes. Or power. Or something else. And religion is only the channel in which they develop.
Now I'm wearing a gray-blue shirt, but I would never wear it in a war zone. It may look like a military one. Raise questions. I like to wear white because it is cool and I go to very hot places. Plus, it's a neutral color. In it you merge more with the environment.
If you want to get in touch with people who are in great distress, who are afraid, who are in despair, it has to be done in a special way. I move a little slow. I speak a little slowly. I let them know that I treat them with respect. By the way you look at people, they see how good your intentions are. All these little things are noticed by those whose lives you want to penetrate.
To be in a fight, to hear the bullets whizzing around your head, the shells exploding around you, and to come out of there safe and sound - this, of course, is very exciting in a sense. You experience a powerful rush of adrenaline. But I don't do my job for that. As far as I know, among the serious war correspondents there are no such psychos who go there for thrills.
There is nothing wrong with ambition in and of itself. But in a dangerous situation, it can affect your ability to think clearly.
I am half deaf. I have bad nerves and constantly ringing in my ears, and sometimes I don’t hear anything at all. I must have gone deaf because I didn't put ear plugs in. Because what I really wanted to hear. You want to achieve the maximum strength of sensations - even if they are too painful.
My works give a very faint idea of what it is like to be there.
Hunger and disease are the most ancient weapons of mass destruction. When fields are burned and animals are killed, people become vulnerable. In Somalia, hundreds of thousands of people were killed by such methods.
Most often, my dreams are not connected with what I saw in different places, but with the feelings that I experienced there. I don't want to say anything more about my dreams.
I returned from France on September 10, at about eleven in the evening, and did not even begin to unpack my bags: the next day I left again. In the morning I was drinking coffee, and suddenly there was a sharp, loud sound outside. The sound was strange and I didn't understand what it was. I looked out the window and saw the first burning skyscraper. At first I thought the fire was due to an accident. Of course, I got curious and started unpacking the cameras so I could go in there and take a closer look. But then I heard a second similar sound and saw how the second tower caught fire. Then I guessed it was a terrorist attack. And I had a strong suspicion that Osama bin Laden was behind this.
My apartment is near the World Trade Center, I got to it in about ten minutes. And again, as always, I ran to the place where everyone else had fled. When the North Tower began to fall, I was already standing right under it. The roar was like a waterfall. I looked up to see an avalanche of glass and steel crashing down on me. It was one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. In a way, it was beautiful, and I really wanted to take pictures. But I knew that I didn't have time. I felt like I was in hyperspace. There was so much information to absorb, so many decisions to make and so many distances to cover... Now it all looks just incredible. I had a matter of seconds to hear it, to see it, to understand that I would not have time to take a picture, to look around for cover and get to it. I noticed that the entrance to the Millennium Hotel was open and rushed to the lobby. It was glazed, I understood that it would be blown to smithereens and I needed to make my way further. I rushed to the elevators, saw an open cabin, jumped inside and pressed my back against the wall. At that moment, everything around was enveloped in darkness.
The darkness was complete and absolute. I knew I was still alive only because I was suffocating. I was coughing and gasping for air in the middle of the giant cloud that the whole world saw outside. Then I got down on all fours and crawled - I felt my way in the dark, sometimes raising my voice to check if there were any wounded nearby. But there was silence all around. Finally I saw flashes, quite dim. At first I could not understand what it could be. But then I realized that it was the cars flashing their turn signals, and realized that I got out into the street. I still couldn't see much, but I was beginning to get my bearings and turned north. After a while, light began to seep through the darkness, and I went to this light.
I never part with my cameras. The police tried to kick everyone out of the scene, but I spent the whole day there filming, all the while expecting to be kicked out.
Now one photo touches me for a living. What was the World Trade Center has turned into a pile of metal. There is no sky, only dust and smoke. This is a real apocalypse. The picture shows a very small figure of a firefighter: he is looking for something in the ruins. But to describe it in words is meaningless. All the power is in the picture.
I shot as long as there was enough light and film, until about half past ten. Then he took the tape to Time magazine. It was definitely one of the hardest working days of my life. I had to walk several miles to get home. All of Manhattan south of 14th Street was closed. There was no light. Planes flew overhead. There were National Guard soldiers everywhere. Cordons stood almost every quarter. A caustic fumes hung in the air. When I got home, there was no electricity or hot water. I lit the candles - a very familiar story for me. I was in a war zone. Only the war came to our home.
I don't think it's possible to retire in our profession.
I've never won the lottery, and I'm not very lucky as a photographer either. But I'm lucky in the main thing: I'm still alive. Because I take risks every day. Compared to this, any other luck is nonsense.
How do I stay optimistic? Very simple. People who find themselves in situations like this never cease to hope. If they still have hope, why should I lose it?
On November 30, 1939, the Soviet-Finnish war began, which many historians attribute to the events of World War II. The goal of the Soviet Union then was to ensure the security of Leningrad, which was located dangerously close to the border with Finland. In the event of the outbreak of a full-scale military conflict, Finland could provide its territory as a springboard for the deployment of troops of opponents of the USSR. The bloody Soviet-Finnish war continued until March 1940. On the eve of the 75th anniversary of this event, we decided to recall the best photographs showing the horrors of war and the joy of victory. We bring to your attention a selection of the 10 most famous military photographs.
"Combat", Maxim Alpert (1942)
The famous picture "Combat" was taken by the Soviet front-line correspondent Maxim Alpert on July 12, 1942 in the Lugansk region, where the 220th Rifle Regiment held the heroic defense. The photo shows a Soviet commander with a TT pistol in his hand, raising his fighters to attack. Alpert managed to take only a couple of pictures of the commander before the moment when a shell fragment smashed his camera. The same shell killed the battalion commander. A unique photograph was published in Soviet newspapers in the same year, but the name of the hero captured in the picture remained unknown. Only years later it was found out that the legendary battalion commander comes from Ukraine, the Zaporozhye region. M. Alpert's picture became a real symbol of courage and military courage, it was immortalized in several monuments and commemorative medals.
Bomb "Fat Man", 1945 A unique photo showing the explosion of the American atomic bomb, nicknamed "Fat Man", during the bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. This four-and-a-half-ton bomb had a plutonium core surrounded by more than sixty explosive charges, which were assembled into a regular geometric shape resembling a soccer ball. The detonation of the charges led to a nuclear chain reaction and a destructive explosion.
The photo shows the first and, fortunately, the only time in the history of mankind when atomic bombs were used for military purposes. More than seventy thousand people were killed during the American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and many more thousands died from the effects of radioactive radiation in subsequent years. Today, this famous photograph clearly demonstrates the dangerous potential of atomic weapons and the true, ruthless nature of war.
"Omaha Beach", Robert Capa (1944)
On June 6, 1944, the Allied operation began, which was called D-Day, to land troops on the shores of Normandy (France). In total, five landing points were identified, one of which was Omaha Beach, for which the American army was responsible. It was in this sector that the most fierce and bloody battles with the fascist troops took place. In just one day of fighting, the Americans lost about three thousand soldiers here. This happened because the bomber planes, due to the fog, could not destroy the enemy fortifications in the area. The iconic image, taken by military photographer Robert Capa, captures the very moment of the landing of troops on Omaha Beach, when tens of thousands of soldiers had to overcome the distance to the coast under artillery fire.
Capa during these terrible events was next to the soldiers, he also had to dive under the water to escape the bullets. The photographer had no time to think about technical issues, so the picture turned out to be blurry, with obvious errors in exposure. However, this did not prevent the photo from becoming truly iconic - it was published by Life magazine, thus paying tribute to the valor and courage of the soldiers who died heroically during the bloody battle.
"Execution in Saigon", Eddie Adams, 1968 Perhaps the most famous photo of the Vietnam War. It was taken in 1968 by Associated Press photojournalist Eddie Adams in Saigon, when the Viet Cong launched an active attack on the city. In the capital, the photographer's attention was attracted by two infantrymen of the South Vietnamese army, who were escorting a man. Adams, camera in hand, watched as the two soldiers told General Nguyen Ngoc Loan that the arrested man had killed the policemen. Immediately, the commander took out a revolver, pointed the barrel at the head of the prisoner and pulled the trigger. Literally a second before the shot, there was another click - Adams made his legendary shot.
This photograph has become a symbol of the anti-war movement in America, playing a significant role in changing the attitude of ordinary Americans to the events of the Vietnam War. Adams has received many prestigious awards for his photograph, including the Pulitzer Prize. However, the events of that day are not so unambiguous. After all, a captured Viet Cong, who was killed in cold blood by a brigadier general, was arrested near a ditch filled with more than thirty corpses of policemen and their relatives. Adams himself subsequently called General Nguyen Ngoc a hero.
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima by Joe Rosenthal (1945)
Joe Rosenthal captured on camera a group of US Marines who fought on the tiny island of Iwo Jima raise the flag on Mount Suribashi. This picture became extremely popular in the West and was reprinted in many publications. It is noteworthy that Mount Suribashi was taken by US troops two hours earlier before the very moment of shooting, and the Stars and Stripes flag was already raised on it. However, that flag was too small, so it was decided to replace it with a larger canvas. By the way, this large banner has survived to this day and is stored in the US Marine Corps Museum. The capture of the island was given to the Americans at a serious cost - they lost more than twenty-five thousand people killed and wounded, so Rosenthal's photo is one of the most recognizable and significant images of World War II.
Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death by Robert Capa (1936)
Another famous shot from the eminent photojournalist Robert Capa. In September 1936, the then young reporter Capa went to Spain, where the events of the Civil War were unfolding at that moment. On the morning of September 5, Capa was in a trench in South Extremadura. When the attack of the Republican army began and automatic bursts were heard, Capa simply stuck his camera out of the trench and pulled the trigger at random. What was his surprise when he saw an amazing moment on the developed photo - a shot militiaman falls to the ground in slow motion.
The photo turned out to be very dramatic and emotional. However, many experts doubt that this incredible footage is genuine. They consider Capa's photograph to be staged, pointing out that the author of the photo himself was actually a few kilometers from the epicenter of the fighting. In addition, it is known that the militia, later identified from the photograph, was actually killed at the moment when he tried to hide behind a tree.
Burning Alive in Vietnam by Nick Ut (1972)
A heartbreaking and poignant photo of the Vietnam War. It depicts crying, frightened children running to escape an aerial napalm attack on a village. The naked nine-year-old girl Feng Tai Kim Fook, who we see in the center of the photo, received fatal burns during these terrible events. But doctors in Saigon, after performing seventeen plastic surgeries, were still able to save her. In the 90s, she moved to live in North America, where she founded her own foundation, designed to help children who were victims of military conflicts. Nick Ut was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for this photo.
Fritz Klein, a doctor in the notorious Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, was arrested in April 1945 by representatives of the British army. The main duty of this doctor was the selection of Jews and Soviet prisoners of war to send them to the gas chambers. In the first days after the liberation of the concentration camp, he, along with other SS men, was forced to bury the corpses lying around the Bergen-Belsen camp in a mass grave. In this camp, the British troops found more than ten thousand corpses, they also released sixty thousand prisoners. In the picture, Dr. Klein stands in a huge grave on the mountain of the dead. At the end of 1945, by decision of the British tribunal, Fritz Klein was hanged.
"The Banner of Victory over the Reichstag", Yevgeny Khaldei (1945)
On April 30, 1945, Yevgeny Khaldei managed to capture the legendary moment - the soldiers of the Soviet army hoist the Banner of Victory over the Reichstag. In the USSR, the picture became a real symbol of victory over Nazi Germany; it was also published in all the leading publications in the world. The world-famous photograph, taken by Soviet photojournalist Yevgeny Khaldei, was actually staged. On the instructions of the editors, Khaldei went to Berlin, taking with him three red banners, one of which just adorned the Reichstag. But by that time, the Soviet soldiers had already hoisted the flag on the Reichstag building, so Khaldei decided to take a number of staged photos. He asked the soldiers of the 8th Guards Army, who met him on the way, to help climb the historic building and set up a red banner there. Khaldei found the most successful angle and shot two cassettes of film.
"Victory in Time Square", Alfred Eisenstadt, 1945 Finally, a well-recognized photograph taken in Times Square by Life magazine reporter Eisenstadt in a moment of triumph - during the celebration of the surrender of Japan. In the picture, a sailor is kissing an unfamiliar nurse girl. The photographer managed to catch a good moment during the general rejoicing of the people. The photograph of the kiss in Times Square has become a symbol of victory for Americans in World War II. The heroes of this legendary shot met in the central square of New York quite by accident, they did not know anything about each other until that moment. Everything happened very quickly, the couple kissed, and then they were immediately surrounded by a crowd of people and they disappeared into it. Therefore, the names of the heroes of Eisenstadt's photo remained nameless for a long time.
Only decades later, finally, it was possible to identify the girl - she turned out to be Edith Shane. In August 1945, she heard the long-awaited news about the end of the war and ran to celebrate in Times Square, where Edith fell into the arms of a completely unfamiliar sailor. But the role of that same sailor from the legendary photograph was subsequently disputed by many men. It is believed that this was Carl Muscarello, who at the time of the celebration of the victory over Japan was about twenty years old.
There are good photographs, there are not very good ones, and there are completely unobtrusive ones. And there are shots that change the world and move history. These are not always professional shots, more often, on the contrary, we are talking about amateur photographs. It's just that a man with a camera was exactly where he needed to be, and he took a picture that remained in the memory of people even after generations. This collection contains ten military photographs that humanity will never be able to forget.
Dr. Fritz Klein, the Bergen-Belsen camp doctor, had a specific job: selecting Jews and Gypsies for the gas chambers. Nevertheless, he did it voluntarily and, as they say, with all diligence. Moreover, he did not even make an attempt to escape when the British troops approached the camp. Actually, this picture was taken at the moment when, at the request of the British, the former staff of the camp collected the corpses lying all over its territory into one mass grave, where they were buried. Well, the labor zeal of Fritz Klein was appreciated: on December 13, 1945, by the verdict of a military tribunal, he was hanged.
Up to 450,000 Jews lived in the Warsaw Ghetto, the largest of them all - if that, of course, can be called life. The ghetto itself was created in 1940, but already in the summer of 1942, mass deportation of its inhabitants to the Treblinka death camp began. And in the spring of 1943, an armed uprising broke out in the ghetto. The rebels, armed with homemade weapons and bombs, as well as a few pistols, tried to resist the German administration. As a result, six thousand people were killed during the suppression of the uprising, another seven thousand were burned in a fire set by the Germans, the rest were taken to Treblinka. The very same picture called "Forcibly removed from pastures" was first published by the Germans themselves, and then used at the Nuremberg trials as evidence of Nazi crimes.
The famous D-Day photograph by Robert Capa captures the landing of the Allied forces in France. Tens of thousands of American, British and Canadian soldiers made it to shore under heavy German fire, many by swimming. And Cape had no time to take care of the correct exposure: when history is being made, there is no time for the technical perfection of the pictures.
Officially titled "Loyalist Militia at the Moment of Death", the photograph captures the tragic death of a soldier during the Spanish Civil War, which was started in an attempt to stop Franco's fascist government from coming to power. The picture went around the world, showing the brutality of war. And although today almost everyone recognizes it as staged, this does not diminish the effect that the sight of a soldier, as if dying before the eyes of the viewer, produces. The author of the photo is again Robert Capa.
This is one of the most famous photographs of the Vietnam War, already rich in photo chronicles. On it, the head of the Vietnamese state police, General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, shoots a newly captured Viet Cong. For this shot, Eddie Adams received the Pulitzer Prize, and the picture itself became one of the strongest incentives for the anti-war movement. However, the circumstances of its creation are not so unambiguous: the Viet Cong, whose name was Nguyen Van Lem, was caught near a ditch in which there were several dozen corpses of policemen and their families.
The photo captured the climax of the second war in Iraq and became a symbol of regime change in the country. The cult of Saddam Hussein fell along with this statue, and soon the dictator himself was hanged by the verdict of the tribunal. For hundreds of thousands of American soldiers and their families, the photograph was a sign that the war was over.
Nick Ut: Vietnam War, 1972
Another photo from Vietnam. The naked girl in the foreground is Feng Tai Kim Fook, who has just torn off her burning clothes. The fact is that Vietnamese aviation launched an airstrike on the village of Trang, in which the Viet Cong strengthened. The village burned down, and Kim Fook received terrible burns. The doctors of the American hospital in Saigon considered them fatal, but after 17 plastic surgeries the girl was saved. Photographer Nick Ut received a Pulitzer Prize for the picture, and for the new government of Vietnam, Kim Phuc became something of a propaganda material. As a result, in 1992, she and her husband fled to Canada, where she lives to this day, establishing a foundation and helping children who were victims of wars.
Joe Rosenthal: American flag over Iwo Jima, 1945
This is perhaps the most important military photograph for the United States. It captures the moment when the Marines set the flag (however, the second - the first was too small) on Mount Suribachi. The flag became a symbol of the first land victory of the Americans over the troops of Japan, especially since it came at a considerable cost: the United States lost more than 25 thousand people killed and wounded in the battle for Iwo Jima. Well, the photographer Joe Rosenthal not only received the Pulitzer Prize, but also forever inscribed his name in the history of world photography.
This picture is recognized all over the world. Perhaps it can be considered the most famous military photograph in the history of mankind. Alexei Berest, Mikhail Yegorov and Meliton Kantaria hoisted the banner of Victory over the Reichstag on May 1, when the fighting in Berlin had not yet ended. The picture, of course, staged, was taken a day later: on May 2, a photojournalist begged the fighters to climb the dome of the building with a flag, and these were already other soldiers. Nevertheless, the photo became famous and for millions of people it still remains a symbol of the Victory.
Source - http://lifeglobe.net/
War is a routine, and only the most resonant episodes of it get on newspaper covers today. The death of 280 passengers of a Boeing shot down in eastern Ukraine is one of those. Photos from the scene of this tragedy spread around the world, provoking another discussion in the journalistic community about what kind of pictures go beyond professional ethics, whether it is possible to convey all the horror of what is happening without corpses in the frame, and whether there is a place for aesthetics in a photograph depicting death.
Bird In Flight talked to photographers who often work in hot spots about what rules they follow when shooting and what audience reaction they want to achieve, and also asked photo editors what photos they do not publish and what publications they consider a mistake.
If you are not horrified by this, you will continue to sit at home on the couch, confident that nothing terrible is happening.
Once near the plane, I went into shock and at first did not know what to shoot. I understood that we are journalists, we are already there and must do our job. But I had doubts about what can be removed, what can not. I was trying to define my own moral boundaries and decided not to photograph close-ups.
I was worried that the photos would not be offensive to the relatives of the victims. And this contrast - a beautiful field, flowers - evoked strong emotions in me. I shot so that the face and lower parts of the body were not visible. If the corpse had been mutilated, of course, I would not have taken this photo.
Isn't the frame too aesthetic? Yes, there is an opinion that it is necessary to show the whole horror of what happened, and I had such pictures. But if it was my death, I would like it to be shown beautifully. I wouldn't want a photo of my severed hand.
Our publication did not publish too heavy photos, but I think when this happens, people should see this nightmare. This is not just a plane crash - these are the consequences of a military conflict. If you are not horrified by this, you will continue to sit at home on the couch, confident that nothing terrible is happening.
{
"img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ethics_slide1_960x720_01.jpg",
"alt": "Toronto Sun, Canada, July 18, 2014 cover. Malaysian Boeing crash in eastern Ukraine.",
"text": "Cover of the Toronto Sun, Canada, July 18, 2014. Malaysian Boeing crash in eastern Ukraine."
},
{
"img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ethics_slide1_960x720_02.jpg",
"alt": "Cover of De Volkskrant, Netherlands, July 18, 2014. Malaysian Boeing crash in eastern Ukraine.",
"text": "Cover of De Volkskrant, Netherlands, July 18, 2014. Malaysian Boeing crash in eastern Ukraine."
},
{
"img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ethics_slide1_960x720_03.jpg",
"alt": " Cover of The New York Times, USA, July 18, 2014. Malaysian Boeing crash in eastern Ukraine.",
"text": " Cover of The New York Times, USA, July 18, 2014. Malaysian Boeing crash in eastern Ukraine."
},
{
"img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ethics_slide1_960x720_05.jpg",
"alt": "Cover by Morgenavisen, Denmark, July 18, 2014. Malaysian Boeing crash in eastern Ukraine.",
"text": "Cover by Morgenavisen, Denmark, July 18, 2014. Malaysian Boeing crash in eastern Ukraine."
},
{
"img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/guardian960x720.jpg",
"alt": "Cover of The Guardian, UK, 18 July 2014. Malaysian Boeing crash in eastern Ukraine.",
"text": "Cover of The Guardian, UK, 18 July 2014. Malaysian Boeing crash in eastern Ukraine."
},
{
"img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ethics_slide1_960x720_07.jpg",
"alt": "Cover by Kommersant, Russia, July 18, 2014. Malaysian Boeing crash in eastern Ukraine.",
"text": "Cover by Kommersant, Russia, July 18, 2014. Malaysian Boeing crash in eastern Ukraine."
}
A photojournalist is not a forensic scientist, so some artistry should be present even in scary photographs.
News photography has one task - to inform about what is happening. Everything else is from the evil one. Some photographs continue to live for decades, becoming symbols, some (of course, most of them) - in a couple of days no one will need them.
I don’t have any clear rules - I always decide on the spot what and how to shoot. And if in the case of man-made disasters, photographing corpses seems superfluous to me, then in the case of hostilities - no. Although some limits, of course, should be. Much depends on the policy of the publication or the agency you work for - someone will put bloody pictures, and someone will limit themselves to a calmer card. Well, do not forget that a photojournalist is still not a forensic scientist, so some artistry should be present even in scary photographs.
Every time during the shooting, I ask myself the question: “Would I, being in the place of the heroes of the story, be filmed?” When I understand that I would not want to, I try not to press the button again. That is, I will remove something important, of course, but I will try to do it in such a way as not to disturb anyone.
As for professional cynicism, this is an integral part of our work. You have to work with people who have become victims of certain circumstances, but you will not be able to empathize with everyone. This is counterproductive in a professional sense, and hard on the heart. Yes, over time, you begin to relate to everything easier, less emotionally. At the same time, the cynicism of photographers and journalists is still greatly exaggerated.
I did not take pictures of the bodies of the dead passengers of MH17, although I knew that there would be demand for such pictures.
When events of historical importance occur, we sometimes have to show the world horrifying pictures. But it is important to remember that the victims of disasters and military conflicts have relatives and friends. In the age of the Internet, they risk seeing their loved ones in a way they would not want to remember them. Therefore, photographers should ask themselves if they are ready to see their loved ones in this form.
The photographer needs a certain degree of freedom. On July 17, I did not film the bodies of the dead passengers of MH17, although I knew that there would be a demand for such images. There was also other material for history. The editors asked me not to shoot the bloody bodies, but the things that belonged to the dead.
{
},
{
"img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ethics_slide2_960x640_04.jpg",
"alt": "News feed of the Russian TV channel LifeNews. Malaysian Boeing crash in eastern Ukraine.",
"text": "News feed of the Russian TV channel LifeNews. Malaysian Boeing crash in eastern Ukraine."
},
{
"img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ethics_slide2_960x640_05.jpg",
"alt": "International Business Times post "Photos from Malaysian Boeing Crash Site".",
"text": "International Business Times post "Photos from Malaysian Boeing Crash Site."
},
{
"img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ethics_slide2_960x640_06.jpg",
"alt": "Time LightBox post "Malaysian Boeing crash in Ukraine: unreal scenes by photographer Jérôme Sessini".",
"text": "Time LightBox post "Malaysian Boeing crash in Ukraine: Unreal scenes by photographer Jérôme Sessini.""
}
The photojournalist must find an image and convey through it all the horror of what is happening.
One day, my colleagues and I conducted an experiment: our boss found a photograph that showed the head of a terrorist in a pool of blood, and invited world-class publications to publish it. No one agreed - a rare reader wants to see pictures intended for pathologists. If the task is to convey the full horror of what is happening, a good photojournalist must do this through the image, and not just photograph the dismemberment.
There are different ways to show tragedy. At one time I worked with Magnolia-TV, and we had to shoot a story about a dead baby who was found in a trash can. Arriving at the place, we saw children examining the tank with interest - this could be the image that would convey the essence of what happened. Finding it means being a professional.
I do not believe that photographers working in hot spots become cynical over time - this cannot happen to a person with a strong psyche. There was one case in my practice: in January 1995, during the first Chechen war, the most venerable photojournalists gathered in Grozny. We stood along the fence on one of the streets, and an old woman with a bucket was walking along the road. The sniper shot her right in the head, she fell. What do you think the photographers did? They stopped filming and ran under fire to help the dying woman. One, however, remained in place and filmed how they carried her. His boss then refused to publish this picture.
The main task of military photography is to do everything so that what is happening will never happen again. It is important to capture the history of the country, humanity, people - everyone should know it, this helps to avoid many mistakes.
War photography should tell an honest story. People who were lucky enough not to see the war with their own eyes should understand what is happening.
War is ugly. Really terrible things are happening. How to remove them depends on the situation. On the one hand, it is useless to publish pictures that will make the reader quickly turn the page. But at the same time, events need to be shown as they are. Not embellishing. To feel this balance, you need to be able to sympathize.
Military photographers must remain calm in stressful situations and be able to empathize. If you can't pull yourself together while on the battlefield, this job is not for you. But you can’t completely turn off all feelings, not let everything that happens through yourself - no matter how professional you are, you still remain a person.
War photography should tell an honest story. People who were lucky enough not to see the war with their own eyes should understand what is happening. Sometimes showing dead bodies is part of this task, but you need to look for other ways to convey the tragedy of events.
While working in Syria, I didn’t shoot everything I saw. I have photographs of bodies covered in linen. They lay open for a few more moments before I pulled the trigger. I felt that I should wait a little - the story will not lose anything.
But I showed corpses when I felt it was necessary. Once I witnessed the burial of six brothers and sisters who died during the bombing. It was one of the most difficult days of my work. It was then that I decided to take a picture of uncovered bodies - the family of the victims wanted to show the whole world the real picture of what happened. I tried to control myself, but after editing and sending the pictures, I burst into tears.
{
"img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/warning.jpg",
"alt": "On the Edge: How to Film Death"
},
{
"img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ethics_slide3_960x720_01.jpg",
"alt": "Boston Globe cover, USA, April 16, 2013. Boston Marathon bombing.",
"text": "Cover of The Boston Globe, USA, April 16, 2013. Boston Marathon bombing."
},
{
"img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ethics_slide3_960x720_02.jpg",
"alt": "Daily Mirror cover, UK, 21 October 2011. Death of Gaddafi.",
"text": "Daily Mirror cover, UK, October 21, 2011. Death of Gaddafi."
},
{
"img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ethics_slide3_960x720_03.jpg",
"alt": "New York Post cover, USA, December 4, 2012. Death in the New York subway.",
"text": "New York Post cover, USA, December 4, 2012. Death on the New York subway."
},
{
"img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ethics_slide3_960x720_04.jpg",
"alt": "Cover of the New York Daily News, USA, September 22, 2013. Attack in a shopping mall in Kenya.",
"text": "Cover of the New York Daily News, USA, September 22, 2013. Attack in a mall in Kenya."
},
{
"img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ethics_slide3_960x720_05.jpg",
"alt": "Life cover, USA, November 26, 1965. Realities of the Vietnam War.",
"text": "Cover of Life, USA, November 26, 1965. Realities of the Vietnam War."
}
There is a difference: it is one thing to take a picture, another thing to make it public.
I believe that a photograph is always a document, a proof. Therefore, the photographer must shoot everything. When preparing a publication, the photographs necessary to confirm the idea of the material are selected (this is still a collective work). And here a lot depends on the position of the editorial board, the taste of the editor-in-chief and, of course, the talent of the photographer.
I press the trigger in any situation. But there is a difference: it is one thing to take a picture, another thing to make it public. I had a case. In October 1992, I filmed the An-124 crash site near Kiev. Among the published photographs was a shot of the face of the deceased pilot, which literally melted into the helmet in the fire. The picture was creepy and powerful. After some time, I was told that the pilot's family was horrified by what they saw. Since then, I always remember that each of my characters has loved ones.
The images have to communicate something else besides the fact that a tragedy has occurred.
When it comes to ethics, it is important to stick to the golden mean. Photographers and editors must have good reasons to shoot and publish too explicit pictures showing a tragic death. Especially if they can identify the identity of the dead.
On the one hand, I believe that such photos should not be published - some MH17 passengers probably had relatives and acquaintances who did not even know that they were in the crashed plane. On the other hand, it is necessary to convey that people are dying - after all, this really happens. In this sense, it is easiest to shoot dead bodies, but such shots do not carry any value in terms of photography. The images must communicate something else besides the fact that a tragedy has occurred.
With the development of social media, photographers and journalists themselves decide what to publish on the Web. Therefore, they also need to be trained in editorial skills. Almost always people gather around the scene of the incident and take pictures of everything they see - nothing can be done about it. And twenty years ago, and now people take such pictures - just now they can be posted on social networks.
The dulling of the senses in the constant stream of naturalistic shots reminds me of the situation with video games - we worry that people stop perceiving violence as something abnormal. In many ways, perception depends on when people see the picture - immediately after the disaster or a few years later. How this affects society as a whole is a complex question.
{
"img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/warning.jpg",
"alt": "On the Edge: How to Film Death"
},
{
"img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ethics_slide2_960x640_01.jpg",
"alt": "Anastasia Vlasova Instagram post. Malaysian Boeing crash in eastern Ukraine.",
"text": "Anastasia Vlasova's Instagram post. Malaysian Boeing crash in eastern Ukraine."
},
{
"img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ethics_slide2_960x640_02.jpg",
},
{
"img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ethics_slide2_960x640_03.jpg",
"alt": "Post on social network VKontakte. Malaysian Boeing crash in eastern Ukraine.",
"text": "Post on social network VKontakte. Malaysian Boeing crash in eastern Ukraine."
}
Have I ever regretted posting a photo?
Yes, alas.
There is a reportage photo, and there is a ruthless photo hunt for fried food - these are different things. A reportage shot can also be frank, frightening, disgusting or indignant in the viewer, but it does not aim to humiliate. That is why at one time all the "giants" of the information space refused to buy and publish photos of Princess Diana in a broken car after an accident in a Paris tunnel.
Have I ever regretted posting a photo? Yes, alas. I went to the funeral of the poet Dmitry Prigov, whose death was very painful for me, and made a photo essay about it - as it seemed to me then, quite respectful, impassive. The publication of it on the blog caused a sharply negative reaction from some of my acquaintances who knew Prigov, and I had to delete the material. I no longer go to funerals with a camera.
The photo must be anti-war,
but each in his own way sees the shortest path to peace.
First of all, photography should tell about what is happening, convey a news message. I would add that it should be anti-war, but everyone sees the shortest path to peace in their own way. One and the same picture can be perceived in different ways: it will inspire one to organize humanitarian aid, the other to raise funds for volunteers.
I never turned down a shot because of its brutality, but sometimes I didn't take it out of respect for the feelings of the person in front of me. The horror of war can be conveyed more subtly than by excessive naturalism. But this is not a general rule, each photographer and each publication decides independently.
In wars, and in any extreme situations, perception is dulled. This is neither good nor bad, it is a natural defense mechanism of the psyche. I myself first felt this in the summer of 2012, when a flood occurred in Krymsk. I arrived there late at night, and emotions began to overwhelm me. But already the next morning, after spending the night in the tent of the emcheesniks, the feelings receded. In this state, I could not understand which shots would have the most impact on the viewer, and this made it very difficult to select photos to send to the editor.