Pictures From War

In the ongoing debate about fake press images Austrian Broadcasting Corporation writes that in the current conflict in Lebanon the iconography (of press photos) is similar to the ones of war press coverage in the past. I couldn't disagree more.

In my opinion aestethics of those pictures changed significantly over time. In Gulf War 1 we had a distant, steril view. We saw some black/green infrared style HUD display pictures of bombs hitting their targets precisely.

1990

Afghanistan and Gulf War 2 brought us the embedded reporter. The images gave you the feeling to be right there (with our boys) in the Big Brother container named Iraque.

2002

Now in July 2006 it's different again. The snapshot look is gone. The pictures from Lebanon look so professional, as if every photographer there is striving for a press picture of the year 2006 award.

2006

For now we should not think about some obviously bad faked and manipulated pictures, we should think about how those so called authentic photos are manipulating us.