Regarding the political discussion above, I am perplexed at the one-sidedness of the comments. As photographers, and particularly as photojournalists there is an onus to be unbiased and to observe without preconceived notions. Unfortunately this rarely happens.

There is no mention of Sderot, the southern Israeli town that has been the target of thousands of bombs launched from Gaza, even during the months of “cease fire”. Nor is there a mention of the fact that Hamas endangers its own civilians intentionally, by launching these missiles from civilian areas. Nor is there a mention that Israel sent in leaflets to these civilian areas, warning about impending retaliatory attacks, in order to limit civilian casualties. Jon Voigt has tried to raise awareness about these issues: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phTtykyzWm0

However, unilateral scapegoating and blame has never advanced peace, and never will. There are always many more facets to a difficult political situation, than what filters through the popular media, both east and west.

What can photojournalists do to promote peace rather than inflame misconceptions, bigotry, racism, and hatred?

– David Ben Gurion, quoted on pp 91-2 of Chomsky’s Fateful Triangle, which appears in Simha Flapan’s “Zionism and the Palestinians pp 141-2 citing a 1938 speech.
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“Everybody has to move, run and grab as many (Palestinian) hilltops as they can to enlarge the (Jewish) settlements because everything we take now will stay ours…Everything we don’t grab will go to them.”

– Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of the Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, Nov. 15, 1998.

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Soren, you leave my my opinion, I leave you yours… ok? thank you very much.

My German comprises of “One large beer please” and “Have you a tablet for headache”!!!

Best wishes,

Mike.

cheers, alun

I do get your point. But you yourself are showing us WHY this discussion here is important!
To explain your point you are showing us powerful photographs that speak and communicate. Photographs that cry out loud and scream for interference. Why? Not only because the situation there is terrible, but also because the photographs are excellent!

We are here as photographers to talk about how to approach this, how to manage to get to these powerful photographs. We discuss the impact a photograph has on us and what would be necessary to optimize them. So that, at the end, these photographs can go out there into the world to speak to the masses, so that something can be changed in the terrible situation in Gaza, Jordan, Zimbabwe, Haiti, there are so many ………

Søren, the photographs are our “weapons” and “shields”. And we are sitting together to make them better. Unfortunately this means to talk about certain things that do sound absolutely crazy when you think of the topic of the photograph …. I agree!!! And I am sure everyone here does to!

But … doing what we are doing we are DOING something. Maybe we are no great fighters with real weapons, maybe we are no good politicians or diplomats who could convince various countries to finally opt for peace … But we try to be good photographers, so that our photographs get out there, much as the ones that you showed to us, to FIGHT for the cause!!!!

That is our way. That is, in my eyes a good way. The best that I myself could do. I would not be helping in any way by merely going crazy here over the horrors of war. But maybe some good PJs can do something with his photographs. Photographs that are passed along. Photographs that speak so directly that not a 1000 words could replace them. Photographs that are accepted in being powerful.
There was just a huge article here in the news talking about how the different parties in the war are trying to controll the pictures that go out into the news. Why? Because they can change the worlds mind. On the other hand side: if there are no photographs, things are not on people’s minds.

Yes. Sometimes the words used here might not be appropriate for the topic. But maybe you can forgive us under the light of what we are trying to achieve. And maybe you can help us to become better.

Thank you for your input.

Sincerely,
Lassal

here in norway some newspapers have been bold enough to publish REAL photos of the more disturbing aspects of the israeli action and MORE POWER TO THEM.
certainly more graphic than anything i have seen in other countries.. and one more graphic than the flickr set, which as i noted above is extraordinary.

soren – it is a simple photograph on a simple photo community site and i would not chastise any for reading into it or appreciating this photo.. this is not a political forum, after all.. and bob, who you single out, does a great deal of good in educating eyes – which is what this place is about.. i was pleased to see a reference to gaza at all.. because of the many blogs out there, so very few have bothered.

we´re all angry about it.. furious at our relative countries inaction.. furious with u.s. politicians for not backing directly a ceasefire..

we´re fighting the same fight i am sure..

i saw them recently as well.. tough.. very very tough.

thanks.

i understand your anger…we are all angry….and you are right, none of us can know the real pain that is totally unimaginable for those of us now sitting at our keyboards…this picture certainly was not published here as anything other than what it is…one simple picture of one man’s pain…symbolic but certainly not all inclusive, nor all explaining, of the scenario that is erupting before our eyes at this moment…as i write you now, CNN is showing me even more carnage and the live coverage television offers cannot be realistically matched here…

however, in the history of conflict photography , single photographs have done more to “get” to people than all of the explanatory larger coverage…i am not suggesting this is such a picture…but i do see it as a symbol of pain, if not telling us of all the pain….

please remember i only am publishing here what the readers of BURN send to me..i am not accessing the news services, nor do i intend to do so…this is not the purpose nor the point of BURN..i would be very pleased if you were to submit what you think are appropriate photographs for discussion..

your outrage is well taken believe me…your outrage is my outrage…unfortunately, i do not think we are going to see any end in sight any time soon….

many thanks for your comment….

cheers, david

Take a look at this flickr-set – and try to apply the comments from this thread…

An injured man is placed into a car.

People like it, because it reminds them of the ongoing conflict – without being unpleasantly graphic. We don’t want to loose our appetite…

We see just the right amount of pain in the facial expression – not so little that we would doubt his pain – and not so much that it becomes painful to look at.

I don’t have anything against this photo, but I find the comments surreal and creepy.

Almost a 1000 people have been butchered so far – one third of them are children!

I find that it’s not appropriate for this community to sit and discussing burning and dodging techniques, – while children are bleeding, suffocating, crying in fear, getting eyes smashed by shrapnel and legs demolished by DIME bombs!

I think that BOBBLACK’s comment is somewhat symptomatic for this community:

“we get pushed up against the glass, the fear and smoke, the pain and anger and madness of what is currently going on, both in gaza and throughout the world […] besides the obvious visual complexity and emotional power of the photograph, what i cherish about it is that it takes me RIGHT THERE: into the heart of the fever and the madness and confusion…”

No Bobblack, “we” are not pushed up against the glass fear and smoke here. This is nothing. AND it doesn’t take “you” into the “heart of the fever and the madness and confusion”. This is nothing –and you know nothing of the situation in Gaza after looking at this picture. AND it’s not about “you” or “we” or our emotions to the photo. It is about “them”. Those who cry and fear and bleed and die!

Bobblack and the other commenter’s intellectualized treatment of Gaza atrocity and associated photos is highly inappropriate – to put it mildly…

We, this community, are sitting in comfy chairs spread around the world in safe distance from anything remotely harmful. We are looking at a photo which reminds us of the situation in Gaza. But at the same time the picture is “soft” enough to not be too disturbing – actually we like the composition – and it’s kind of “nice”…

What is wrong with the “big picture” here?

People are getting butchered – and you are talking about dodging and burning!