Consequences
The familiar and repetitive narrative of war, from the jingoistic excitement to the flag draped coffins coming home and the ensuing resentments and questions of futility. The almost cloned narrative arc of the young idealistic photojournalist - going off to find fame and fortune and prizes through war - then only finding a reflection of themselves, one they find hard to look at…is perhaps a familiar fable. The film Killer Image about Robert King’s own career arc is an example of this.
Like the sad inevitability of war we will always have the narrative of the ‘woe is me photographer’ broken by what they have seen. This is going to sound hard, but, well Mr PJ, no-one told you to go and get your ass embedded.
No-one outside of the adrenaline and career driven voice that said that this is going to be exciting. Perhaps this is unfair, as I’m only using myself as an example here because if I had had the opportunity to go when I was younger I would have gone too.
But perhaps true also is what Robert King says, war didn’t fuck him up…he was already fucked before he went. War just brings it out…because you have to be a little fucked to want to go and see the sights of war.
Anyway, as Ashley Gibson discusses in his film (here) there has to be a new way to examine and discuss war through photography. Click on the image and come to your own conclusions.
N.B. Apologies for the random arrangement of text, growing Vine-like around the image above…Wordpress is an enigma, wrapped up inside a paradox of some unseen Geek’s making - apologies again.
