Monday, April 26, 2004

Speaking of Photographs

I've read much about the photographs of flag-draped coffins en route from Iraq but Timothy Yu says it all. A photograph can say a thousand words but sometimes words can speak a photograph:
I very much doubt that the woman who took the photograph* did so with the intention of rousing the forces of opposition to the war. Instead, the photograph has been politicized by a government's desire to suppress it, which tells us that the only absolute truth about war--people die--is itself a threat to the ideology that promotes war. This is the same government that has no qualms about using 9/11's images of death to trumpet its own achievements.

No comments: