War Photography

The two readings for this post both deal with responsibility and the ability of individuals and entire nations to view an event, such as the Rwanda Genocide, as not worthy of taking action. Gourevitch really focused on how many people and nations decided not to actually make space for the living in Rwanda, for the people who were being slaughtered and needed help, but were willing to make space for them as dead people. The U.S. had created a space for victims of genocide through the Holocaust museum but didn’t do anything beneficial to stop the next genocide from happening. I feel that Sontag might say this has to do with how people looking at war through photos or the news “can’t understand, can’t imagine” what it truly means to be there and the liveliness and speed of the war and the death happening behind the still silent image they see. Furthermore, Sontag discussed how censorship and the limiting of what we can see from different countries has led to an incorrect belief being spread about Africa and Asia. The fact that the most gruesome images we see come out of Africa has led people to think that those gruesome images don’t exist elsewhere when the reality is that they exist everywhere and are just being hidden/censored. I believe that it is too easy to say “that’s them, we would never do that” when it comes to atrocities and horrible events. This belief that Africa is the only place, where nasty things like this happen, was also highlighted by Gourevitch when he talked about how the French, the U.S., and the UN all played off what was happening in Rwanda as savages doing what they do best naturally: fighting each other. Is it not just as savage to stand by idly and choose to not help those who need it? Many countries have nasty wars but will save face through censorship just like how the French tried to save face through their Operation Turquoise. The 2 authors also come together on the topic of how people don’t care about things that don’t personally affect them, this is way photos can be both powerful and powerless; the UN made the genocide convention out of their self – interest not out of hope for the greater good. How do we get people to care? This question is one that I worry cannot be answered, but I do believe if there were consequences for not caring things would be better. There is an overall societal deficit of not caring that is at the root of many problems and I would argue that contractual thinking is what keeps us from helping and caring. Photos of horrors only reach their full power when they are viewed with the lens of compassion and not contractual thinking.