How Photography Changed our View of the Vietnam War
Unfortunately, the history of humanity has been violent and bloody since the beginning of time. We have witnessed enough violence and enough wars, but our craving for peace is far from being satisfied.
The Vietnam War was sandwiched between technological advances in many fields and the still-human presence on the battlefields. Thanks to this, we have plenty of images that portray terrible human situations in ways that dramatically influenced our perception of the war. Some people opposed the war because of these images — and some of the most iconic ones were not even taken in conflict zones. The best example of such an image is Marc Riboud’s photograph known as Flower Child, which portrays a courageous young girl opposing a large and threatening group of armed men outside the Pentagon during a peaceful protest against the Vietnam War.
Still imagery and video have been affecting our perception of many conflicts and wars over the years, and especially the Vietnam War. Due to technological advances in photography, photojournalists could venture inside battlefields without much technical trouble. In fact, press agencies didn’t train the photographers who were commissioned to cover the war. Nowadays it is different, and photojournalism has even taken a step further by training photographers via a risk-focused program that helps them…
