Final Essay

This essay is going to compare two war documentary images, one image is Napalm Girl by Nick Ut and the other is an image from a project by Hosam Katan which won the IAFOR Documentary photography award. This essay is going to compare the actual photographs themselves, the effect and impact both images have had on people and how documentary photography has changed.

(1)(2)

Both images are very similar, both contain effects of war, real situations and in both images the main focus is a child who has been severely hurt and effected by the situations they have been born into, both pictures are also award winners with Hosan Katan winning the IAFOR documentary photography award and Napalm Girl phenomenally winning every major award in 1973 including the world press photo award. Even the photographers are very similar with both being 21 years old when the images were taken and both being documentary photographers and photojournalists, the only difference is that Nick Ut is a photographer who was specially sent to the Vietnam war to capture images where as Hosman Katan is a Syrian who wanted to show what it is like to live in Syria and have to put up with the events that he has been placed in. even though both images and the photographers behind them are very similar the effect and the impact both have had on people throughout time has been very different, even though the photo by Hosman Katan is still fairly new and has only had around a year in the public eye it is still an award winner, but it isn't an image which has become recognisable and an image which has been shown throughout the news and other media outlets. This is very different to the photo which it is being compared and contrasted against, Nick Ut's image Napalm Girl is one of the most recognisable pieces of war time documentary and appeared on the front of almost every newspaper and magazine towards the later years of the Vietnam war and since has been recently revisited by media outlets such as People magazine, Daily mail, the Guardian, abc news, CNN and many more. 

Because each image have both had very different media coverage and a very different sized audience it has meant that they have not had the chance to make the same impact on people, there are many reasons why this could be, one could be the changing times and how used to controversy people have become and another could be the fact that photography and documentary photography has become much more of a popular thing.

Because controversy and controversial moments are more visual now days due to the internet, Television, magazines and newspapers it could be that we are more used to seeing them which means that when we see a piece of film or a photography which contains something unusual or could contain something horrific and emotional like the images which are being contrasted it could mean we don’t notice them like we should and could mean that they don’t hit us as hard as they should, Peter Adams who is a photographer said  “Great photography is about depth of feeling, not depth of field.”(3) which could back up the point and the fact that when people are looking at images which contain something unusual, horrific and emotional and have been show and exposed to his kind of media a lot they could lose feeling and emotion towards certain images causing them to not get the recognition and attention they might deserve like the photo taken by Hosam Katan, the photo taken by Nick Ut could also back up this point because during this period of time the public wasn't flooded by the media and internet with images like this which contained controversial things.

There are many reasons we are more familiar with the controversial moments and photos, for example the fact there are more types of media than there used to be for example the internet and things on the internet such as social media sites, videos sharing sites, photo sharing sites, ect, another example is that cameras and devices which contain a camera or a camera function are much easier for the public to get their hands on, almost everybody has a phone or another devices which has a camera mode on it. Both of these things have changed documentary photography and photography in general, these factors could also be big reasons why both the image by Hosam Katan and napalm girl by Nick Ut have had such different effects on people.

Due to the fact there are more cameras available to the public than there used to be and due to the internet, a platform for people to showcase and show off their work that didn’t used to be there when photography was still in its early days as a profession, it means that when browsing and looking for photos there is a much bigger gallery to look through meaning a good photo is much harder to find and notice which could be a massive factor to why the two photos which are being contrasted have had such a different effect, the fact that more images and photos can be show can also be a very good thing because the photographer and the public have more control of what they show to the world and they don’t have any media sources choosing what images should be shown and what images shouldn't as it could cause people to feel a certain way or lean towards a certain opinion and side. Software though could be a massive downfall to documentary photography as images could be manipulated and changed and the main point in documentary photography is its suppose to tell a story or tell the audiences something and get a specific point across, for example the images which are being contrasted are there to show the harsh reality of war, the real effects of war and what it can do to innocent people involved. This could be a reason certain images don't get notice and enough recognition as audiences and viewers might look at an image an think it has been tampered with and edited meaning if there’s an image that is supposed to have a hard hitting story behind it, it may not hit them like it should. An example of someone not believing in documentary photography and believing that facts and things can be manipulated and edited in photos is an art photographer who said "When I lie, I am closer to the truth than documentary photography."(4).

Overall because times have changed and things which effect photography have changed it means that photographs which have had a certain effect and have had people feel a certain way about them, at the start of photography and even 20-30 years ago will have a different effect and status in the modern day photography field. there also aren’t just a few things which have changed since the last couple of years there has been a lot such as, the internet being a very big platform for photographers, journalists and artist to showcase their work, a lot more photographers out there even if there not professional they are able to capture images, image manipulation, editing software and trust issues with certain photographs especially a document photograph and even people becoming more familiar with controversy and other types of images. it could be because of all these factors and more that images like the ones that are being compared don’t have the same effect and impact. it could be that the Napalm girl image by Nick Ut became such a famous photo because photography was younger and less photos had been taken meaning an image like this was a new concept and audiences were attracted to it, the photo by Hosam Katan may have been moved aside and not given the recognition it deserves because images like this have become a familiar site in peoples everyday lives, meaning people are hit as hard as they should. another big thing which could have played a massive part is the politics of it all, when napalm girl was taken it was near the end of the Vietnam war, a war that a lot of people and communities protested against, whereas the image by Hosam Katan is capturing an event during the conflict in Syria, a war that isn’t that well known about and if anything is being backed by modern day media meaning certain news channels and paper may not choose to show such a gruesome image. but when it comes down to it if the images where swapped and napalm girl was taken in the modern day era and the image by Hosam Katan was taken in 1972 they results and impacts could have been very different, so over all it maybe the change of documentary photography and also the increased popularity in photography, which is a sad thing because there are images out there that have a hard hitting story or something behind them that people should know and they aren't given the chance to be show due to how small that one image is in the whole world of photography and the catalogue of photographs and even if certain images do get noticed like the image by Hosam Katan and even win an award there may be certain reasons why they don’t get more publicity for example it may contain gruesome details which will put newspapers and magazines off featuring them.

Bibliography

(1)http://i.imgur.com/YZnE1aP.jpg

(2)http://iaforphotoaward.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/09_Hosam_Katan.jpg
(3)http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/6727405-great-photography-is-about-depth-of-feeling-not-depth-of
(4)http://www.photoquotes.com/showquotes.aspx?id=852&name=Stano,Tono