Exposing War
Medium prompt

The strongest medium for displaying the horrors of war would be photographs. That is not to say that words cannot also have a strong effect on someone. Describing a war in words can vividly depict a violent, disturbing war image. Written words can intensely place an image in someone’s head on what it must have been like to be at a scene of war. Yet photographs are better at depicting the horrors of war. A good example would be the photographs by Ronald L. Haeberle, My Lai villagers before and after being shot by U.S. troops. One image shows a woman crying and suffering as another woman holds her for comforting purposes. There is a scared little girl in the background, clinging onto someone upon sight of the guns. If someone were to read an account of My Lai, it would be easy to understand that the villagers were upset. Yet actually seeing the villagers suffer makes it so much realer and horrifying. Looking at their faces and the poor little girl is so much more upsetting than just reading about it.

Another photograph shows two people lying dead. Both are bleeding, which is disturbing enough. Seeing blood as opposed to just reading about it is always much more upsetting. Yet, what is even more upsetting is the fact that one of the two dead people is only a little boy. He is only a kid, probably no more than ten years. The kid should be alive and healthy at such a young age. Yet he lies dead and bloody on the side of the road. No matter what words were used, a written account of the poor child could never express the horror that a photograph does.

One last example is the poster of Emina Uzicanin. Emina’s story is a tragic one – when she was just five years old, a land mine exploded, severing her left leg. The story is deeply upsetting. No five year-old deserves to lose a leg. However, it is more disturbing to see an actual photograph of Emina. The photo shows a beautiful girl, so young, with a leg missing. Seeing Emina without her leg makes the story more real. It is more disturbing to see the missing leg rather than to just hear that some girl in the world lost a leg. Seeing Emina has a deeper effect on the viewer, just as all photographs do.