Ally, Post 11

Ally Best
Post 11

1. The term “official” brings to mind boy band fan clubs and facebook groups. Why would groups want to use such a term? Most likely, they use the term “official” to add a certain validity to the group; to show that the club or group represents the best interests of the subject. Some war images are considered “official” for similar reasons. Most often images are considered official when they are somehow endorsed by the subject. In the case of the war in Iraq, the military and, ultimately, the government are being portrayed, so they are generally the ones who, through the media, determine which images are deemed “official” and ok to represent the war. Several magazine covers depict such images. One “Times” magazine shows a woman wearing a combat hat and gazing off into the distance. If this does not spark patriotic vibes in a person, I don’t know what will. This image portrays not simply an American soldier, but a woman. By picturing a female, the magazine has accomplished two goals. First of all, as the caption reads, and her gender seems to imply, she is a mother. She has a family. Her role as not simply a soldier but a family member draws attention to all of the sacrifices members of the American military have been forced to make. Viewers tend to rally behind individuals they can relate to and sympathize with. Once the public supports the soldiers, they begin to support the war itself, or at least that’s what the government hopes will happen. The government, while not directly telling the media what to produce, is able to influence them by promoting certain images and stories. Another example of an “official” image appears on yet another “Times” magazine cover. The title boldly advertises “The Sinister World of Saddam,” and, by the look of the image, “sinister” is the perfect word to describe the image. The photograph portrays a tile mural in Baghdad depicting Saddam. With his hat pulled low, dark sunglasses, thick moustache, and unsmiling face, he seems to exude a sense of evil. This representation helped viewers see Saddam exactly as the government wanted them to: a mysterious monster. By picturing Saddam, the media also succeeded in providing a face for the people’s hatred. Most people would have had trouble hating an entire country they knew very little about. However, when the media began showing pictures of Saddam, he became a symbol of terrorism and corruption. US citizens were able to unite behind their common hatred for him and give more support to the war in Iraq.

2. “Practices of Looking” discusses the effect mass media can have on public opinion. As the article argues, the results of certain images can be incredibly powerful. We see an image of five happy people sitting around a dinner table and suddenly we know what a family is “supposed” to be. We see advertisements of women dressed in tiny clothes and wearing loads of makeup being followed by attentive male stalkers and we know what a woman is “supposed” to look like. The danger with such images is that they cause us to forget that we are “supposed” to be individuals, not clones of the images we see. The world is made up of many different people with many different beliefs and views. This diversity adds beauty to the world and makes it a better place to live by pulling on the strengths of a wide variety of people. Imagine how utterly meaningless life would seem if you walked out of your house one day to see that every woman had turned into Paris Hilton and every man had become Patrick Dempsey. Yet, so many people attempt to emulate the images they see that portray the “ideal” ways of life. Images tell us a lot of things about life that we are better off discovering ourselves. The visual has the ability to ignite emotions that the literal can barely touch. However, while images can have very powerful consequences, the real power is a result of the event or theme to which they refer. As the “Culture/War” article explains, image controversies “erupt along existing fault lines dividing highly polarized positions on social and political issues.” In other words, the “wars” that center around images are not “created” by the images themselves, but rather by some other issue already present in society. Sontag refers with frustration to peoples’ tendency to act “as if the fault or horror lay in the images, not in what they depict” (“Regarding the Torture of Others”). She is entirely right. Images are like telescopes. Their power is in allowing us to view certain phenomena, but they themselves are really quite unremarkable. In other words, images are powerful not because of what they are, but because of what they allow us to see.

3. “These pictures will not go away” (Sontag, “Regarding the Torture of Others”). These are perhaps the most powerful words in Sontag’s essay. Referring to the Abu Ghraib photos, Sontag is discussing the inability of the influence of the photos to be silenced. Once released, they had such an immediate, appalling, and memorable effect on the American public that there was no way to simply recall them and forget about them. They were already burned into the brains of millions of people across the globe. Some people argue that such images should be kept from the public, especially in times of war. They argue that the images will only create anger. They are entirely right: the images will create anger. In a war against terrorism, “some of our own” are terrorizing “the enemy.” This event SHOULD create anger. People SHOULD get mad. By exhibiting the photos in the International Center of Photography, people got angry; they grew passionate, as they should have. Nearly every great change in American history is the result of people with passion. When there are injustices in the world, people have a duty to stand up for humankind. If that means people have to see images that they are not “comfortable” with, then so be it.