Tuesday, May 17, 2005

The dignity of representation

It's happened again. Unbidden and unexpected, images like these intrude.

Two Dallas News photographers won a 2004 Pulitzer "for their eloquent photographs depicting both the violence and poignancy of the war with Iraq." One of them, David Leeson, said,

I understand the criticisms about blood and gore. I don't seek that. When I approach a body on the ground after a battle, I'm determined to give dignity to that person's life and photograph him with respect. But sometimes, as with my pictures of child victims, the greatest dignity and respect you can give them is to show the horror they have suffered, the absolutely gruesome horror.

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