التصوير عبر التاريخ .. الحرب .. مسلخ للتاريخ ، مجلة فن التصوير اللبنانية _ ع١٤

Photography throughout history
War .. Slaughterhouse of History BILDER VOM KREC

In the Crimean War in 1848, the photographic camera entered the battlefields for the first time, and since that date it has become an integral part of wars. For those who follow the history of photography, we have seen its translation from German, especially since it has not been translated into any language yet, so that it will be accessible to our readers as soon as possible.

The book is by Rene Fabian and Hans Christian Adam. It is located in 340 pages of large size and contains pictures that have not been previously published before now for many reasons, and the pictures are all in black and white, without a doubt. It is divided into seven historical periods, beginning between 1848 and 1870 and ending between 1950 and 1983.
In addition to an extensive introduction titled “Between Hilton and Apocalypse,” which will be the material for our first episode, with the speech given by Helmut Gollwitzer to the book, which we also saw published due to its importance.

The word Gollwebitzer

With the end of World War II, there is no longer a single day of peace on the globe, and so more than thirty-five million people have been killed since 1945 until now, in more than 120 wars around the world. In the Vietnamese war alone, more than fifteen One million tons of bombs, equivalent to four times what fell in World War II. Three million citizens and more than fifty-eight thousand American soldiers died in Vietnam alone. People still remember many big wars such as the Algerian war, which claimed more than a million victims, the Korean war, two and a half million victims, then the Cambodia war, nearly three million victims. As for the small wars, almost everyone forgets them, for example: the border dispute between China and the Soviets at the River Ussuri. And the football war between El Salvador and Honduras, which killed about 2,500 people, much more than the number of deaths in the Falkland Islands war, between Argentina and Britain.

Since 1945, the industrialized countries began to supply the innocent parties who became victims with weapons and ammunition, and the suffering began to increase with these supplies, and the battles began in all its forms: civil wars, massacres, unrest, military coups, and some of these battles turned into wars with tanks and missiles, these materials that became the burden The largest in the economies of countries, where the generals began to dispose of the state treasuries by force of arms... As a result, two million people died of starvation in Biafra, and thirty thousand Vietnamese died at sea. In India and Pakistan, bloody battles and massacres took place between Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs, in which more than a million people were killed. In Lebanon, which Ariel Sharon demolished, more than fourteen thousand Palestinians and Lebanese died, and more than 600 thousand civilians were displaced! Even today, many wars are still going on all over the world... and perhaps in places whose names we do not know yet!

War is a slaughterhouse for history

If there is a war image that, by simply looking at it and reflecting on it, pushes one to avoid participating in any war. A picture like this will never see the light...
In this sense, the war photographers, who hope that their pictures will improve the world, fight over losing positions, fight against the confiscation of their pictures, fight against their editorial office that dare not publish terrible pictures, fight against governments that exploit their photos for propaganda, and finally against short memory. for the world . whose photos are neglected in the archives, while the military is increasingly armed for new wars.

From the First World War to the Vietnam War and even the bitter fighting in Beirut, war photographers struggle for one thing - at most - to make the pain last for a shorter period.
Dozens of years passed until the photographers were able to confirm the nature of the war through their pictures. In fact, war is nothing but a slaughterhouse for history!
In the middle of the nineteenth century, photographers were standing in front of death, unable to control themselves. There is fear that prevents them from approaching. There was a forbidden land between the camera and the dead, which the photographers did not dare to cross.
The first pioneers of war photography showed war as a strategic event... They depicted places on maps, where armies penetrate, ambushes are set up, and battles are decided. That it happened here! ..

As for what was going on inside the country... In the laboratories, the female workers were working on making bombs, while heroic anthems were heard in space, and in front of the recruitment offices. Take photos of the new volunteers...

As battle painters who glorify it, most painters idealized war. In their paintings, military leaders and their victories in their wars, which usually end with medals, laurel wreaths, and legends.

The inhabitants of Europe did not see, during the First World War, pictures of death. The observers of the countries involved in the war strangled in the cradle all journalistic commitment. Henry Miller wrote: What public opinion saw of the First World War, much of which had been omitted from it by observation and photography, was a kind of duty. From military service with a camera, instead of a gun or cannon. And the photographers who were sent to the front took pictures as if they knew that these pictures would not be published. They were working for the archives, and this thing was clear from their pictures. People often appeared on the pictures as lines passing over the horizon or sleeping on boxes of ammunition. The pictures of the prisoner market were exposing the successive statements of the army about imaginary numbers that were attached to their telegrams.

The pain of war no one dared to show even in the Second World War. It is permissible to show a little pain caused by "the attacks of others, but not to show too much in order to prevent pity." This is what John Morris, who was a photojournalist for a magazine, remembers now. Live And his observation applies to all countries involved in the war.

Photos - against the war »taken only in the wars of Korea and Vietnam in a thoughtful manner has also been published.

Unlike the Crimean War, where pictures were taken during it so as not to disturb the peace in the homeland around the British fireplaces, and unlike the First World War, where the pictures were taken for the sake of the fame and glory of the homeland, and unlike the Second World War, where German soldiers and partisans appeared on war pictures on their way to The fronts were as if they were participating in the Olympic Games. Unlike all previous wars, the war photographers, with their pictures in the Vietnam War, wanted to shock people from its horror, and that their pictures were an indictment against the times.

The demand for war pictures was never so intense as it is now, and in the midst of the TET offensive, sixteen thirty-seven war informants registered with US General Headquarters in Saigon, went to press conferences, flew to
The fronts by helicopters telegraphed their reports to the capitals of their newspapers, and they sent pictures by planes and wireless devices across the seas.