BEHIND ENEMY LINES : A Photojournalist.

Photography has brought a lot of truth to the people. Before photography, war was presented to the public as being romantic; you can see this in old paintings of war heroes in museums. Photography made an early great impression during the Civil War, as an early example, as it brought home to many people the gruesome realities of war.

Photography "set painting free." Prior to photography, paintings usually attempted to show reality as well as the could. When photography took over that job during the late 1800s, painters started to express their inner feelings rather than show scenes realistically. The first painters to successfully express themselves in this way were the "Expressionists."

I believe that even today there as been a similar artistic change in photography; it was predicted that the digital camera would eliminate the film camera, but I have been learning that many people prefer the effects of film images over digital images because they can be made to be more expressive.

I personally support openness in information and expression, so I don't feel that there are too many ethical issues surrounding photography. If a person is in a public place where he can be seen by many, I feel that he should not be upset if he gets photographed. In today's world with its many dangers there are many security cameras pointing at us in public places so the ethical issue has become moot in a sense.

Photojournalists bring us many images of suffering, and many people feel that these images are an intrusions. In fact the great war photographer Don McCullin felt great guilt for taking pictures of people who were dying or about to be killed.

He wrote: "I have been manipulated, and I have in turn manipulated others, by recording their response to suffering and misery. So there is guilt in every direction: guilt because I don't practice religion, guilt because I was able to walk away, while this man was dying of starvation or being murdered by another man with a gun. And I am tired of guilt, tired of saying to myself: "I didn't kill that man on that photograph, I didn't starve that child." That's why I want to photograph landscapes and flowers. I am sentencing myself to peace."