War photography, photojournalism, whatever name it is given tells a gruesome but also human story of what is happening on the front lines of conflict, from the American Civil War when they were using the first forms of photography to now when digital images are sent via satellite phones straight from the front lines like during the push to Baghdad during the first part of the second Iraq War.
One of my heroes was a war photographer by the name of Robert Capa. He took iconic photographs during the Spanish Civil War and World War II, as well as in Indochina (Vietnam for those that don't know) with the French where he sadly stepped on a land mine and ended his life too early.
His most iconic image is probably this one called "Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death" taken in 1936.
War photography is very beautiful in the sense that it captures all the emotions shown by people. Anger, fear, and every once and a while a glimpse of joy. That's what makes the personal story of each solider so amazing, and then that can be transcended as a whole to cover the entire situation, going from creating profiles and focusing on individuals and their experiences, bringing the whole situation into the picture can be just as powerful.
As a photojournalist covering war, it doesn't matter what the subject matter is, for instance, this photo titled "Kerch, Crimea (Grief)" taken in 1941 by Dmitri Baltermants shows the ultimate cost of war, death and the toll it takes on the living.
There is nothing that makes it an easy job. I can't say it is or isn't, it is only from what I have read or heard talking from photojournalists like Nathan Webster who has done three tours in Iraq.
Would I like to go to Iraq, Afghanistan, or some other war torn country in the name of war photojournalism? That is a question that I often ask myself when I go through books and images online, do I have what it takes to go on a tour of duty in a combat environment with the potential of bullets being shot at me?
I watched this documentary and the parts about the photojournalists really hit home to the possibilities of what could happen, but just being embedded in general would be an experience.
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