Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/08/01

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Photojournalism and 9/11
From: Adam Bridge <abridge@mac.com>
Date: Thu, 01 Aug 2002 08:58:22 -0700

on 8/1/02 8:15 AM, B. D. Colen at bdcolen@earthlink.net thoughtfully wrote:

> Not that any of the above should detract from the fact that Vietnam Inc. is
> a really amazing, powerful, piece of anti-war propaganda. But your example
> provides yet aother example of how documentary photography fails to change
> the world.

I have to believe that for a culture the size of the United States no single
point source of information can cause a radical shift - unless it is of
extraordinary impact. 9/11 is an example of such a shift - which appears to
be relatively long-lasting: people feel insecure and seem willing to take
action to reduce that insecurity.

Over the long-haul, however, it's what the intelligence community likes to
call a "mosaic" that changes public opinion. Just as no single view of the
happening world, as John Brunner called it, can be entirely the truth,
perhaps many points of view can present a better view. If this is the case,
and I believe it is, then photo-journalism, video documentaries, prose,
poetry, the visual arts, and novels all present a rich mosaic that affects
the body of the population.

I have to think that the Evening News, its images and its content had a
profound effect on how the general population of the United States felt
about the war in Vietnam. I know it did for those around me. I was in
college during that time, and in the Navy.

Adam Bridge

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Replies: Reply from S Dimitrov <sld@earthlink.net> (Re: [Leica] Photojournalism and 9/11)