There are some comments on this photogallery about how great the pictures are and whether or not any money can be made from them. There are also some very intelligent responses about photojournalism that suggest people worry more about donating to the appropriate authorities…and then donating again a month later…and then again a year later. I peeked at this gallery after I posted some thoughts in my own blog:
I’ve been watching Anderson Cooper on CNN covering the Tsunami. Amid stories from tourists who survived, supermodels who hung on to trees for 8 hours, and scuba divers who were underwater when the waves came in, there are pictures and stories of dead babies and grief-stricken parents. I watch, mesmerized, tears welling up in my eyes…thinking…I should turn this off.
Then Cooper comes on and he says something to the tune of “We are receiving e-mails already that tell us that people don’t want to see these kinds of pictures of the dead babies.” He then says that while nobody wants to see these kinds of pictures, it is what is happening.
And I try to process this. Should I be outraged that CNN is showing us dead babies? Should I be outraged that they might consider showing less of them because of the complaints? Am I appalled that the news media is sensationalizing the situation? Am I relieved that these tragic, horrifiying pictures finally evoke some emotion in me…finally touch something within me that makes me think about the tragedy in a way I simply hadn’t been able to before? These pictures…justified or unjustifiable…make me think of this disaster in the terms of individual humans. The face of one dead child. The wailing of one grieving parent. I’ve sorted through some pictures on the web, carefully chosen so that they show the damage in economic terms. They show destroyed buildings and debris strewn everywhere. In providing understanding, though, they cannot compare to the image of a mass grave or a broken child or a father’s face distorted by a wail.
These are brief images, interspersed in some surreal manner with the image of a preening supermodel, the only footage they must have of this star who survived the tsunami by hanging on in a tree.
24 hour live news coverage.
I don’t want to see this stuff, but it is what is happening. Thank God all -I- have to do is turn it off.
There are some comments on this photogallery about how great the pictures are and whether or not any money can be made from them. There are also some very intelligent responses about photojournalism that suggest people worry more about donating to the appropriate authorities…and then donating again a month later…and then again a year later. I peeked at this gallery after I posted some thoughts in my own blog:
I’ve been watching Anderson Cooper on CNN covering the Tsunami. Amid stories from tourists who survived, supermodels who hung on to trees for 8 hours, and scuba divers who were underwater when the waves came in, there are pictures and stories of dead babies and grief-stricken parents. I watch, mesmerized, tears welling up in my eyes…thinking…I should turn this off.
Then Cooper comes on and he says something to the tune of “We are receiving e-mails already that tell us that people don’t want to see these kinds of pictures of the dead babies.” He then says that while nobody wants to see these kinds of pictures, it is what is happening.
And I try to process this. Should I be outraged that CNN is showing us dead babies? Should I be outraged that they might consider showing less of them because of the complaints? Am I appalled that the news media is sensationalizing the situation? Am I relieved that these tragic, horrifiying pictures finally evoke some emotion in me…finally touch something within me that makes me think about the tragedy in a way I simply hadn’t been able to before? These pictures…justified or unjustifiable…make me think of this disaster in the terms of individual humans. The face of one dead child. The wailing of one grieving parent. I’ve sorted through some pictures on the web, carefully chosen so that they show the damage in economic terms. They show destroyed buildings and debris strewn everywhere. In providing understanding, though, they cannot compare to the image of a mass grave or a broken child or a father’s face distorted by a wail.
These are brief images, interspersed in some surreal manner with the image of a preening supermodel, the only footage they must have of this star who survived the tsunami by hanging on in a tree.
24 hour live news coverage.
I don’t want to see this stuff, but it is what is happening. Thank God all -I- have to do is turn it off.