Showing posts with label war2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label war2. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

which right do you want protect?



In today’s post, I want to show my own experience I had a week ago. And I will be really glad if you readers give your idea about this fact and question.


DO YOU THINK PUTTING PHOTOGRAPHS OF WARFARE, FAMINE OR OTHER TRAGEDIES ON SNS (social network services) IS VIOLATING THE TAKEN PERSON’S PRIVICY RIGHTS?


A week ago, on a social network service, I found a friend of mine writing a following statement.

“It’s about a photograph of warfare everyone is talking about these days. The person who took and put it on SNS probably had a purpose. But where is the kid’s human right and privacy? He (or she, I’m not sure) is not on exhibition. What happens to his/hers personal rights when his/hers photograph is retwetted in all over the world, to unknown people?”

It shocked me a lot reading this post because what my friend said was totally true. And I realized this post opened a door for me to see the world from a different angle.

Indeed, when you put photograph of somebody without the person’s permission, it is seriously violating the privacy of the person. The friend of mine told me, “If the photograph’s person was me, I will be embarrassed and don’t feel well about the fact my photograph is going around all over the world”.

I came to a conclusion after a consideration of this opinion and her first post that what she said was totally right. I cannot deny it. Still, I also understand what people who put these photographs on SNS thought and hoped. I build an idea about the power of Photographs in my first blog entry of this semester. I showed how the photographer think and expect from the photographs. In the second post, I showed how the photographs could be used to change and contribute for this world. People who put these photographs probably (from my perspective) trust the power of photographs and the possibility of it. There are happening a lot of tragedies in this world, which we do not know well. From my point of view, these people putting those photographs on SNS, and who retweet or share it, are willing to make people aware about what is happening in the other side of the world           and think about that. Only after knowing what is going on in this world, people can make a decision to contribute to help those people or situations.

Additionally, I also thought about the feelings the person who was taken on the photograph could have. Did he/she really care about his/her own privacy when his/her family’s life and his/her own life are in a danger? This was a questions came on my mind. When you are in these situations that you do not know where is a safe place, or you do not know when you will die (now? After a second? Am I alive tomorrow?), you probably pray, “Whoever, please save us”. What do you think?

Indeed, the action to put photograph on SNS and share it to unknown people all over the world can violate the person’s privacy. But before that, we have to think about the fact that the fundamental rights of human beings is violated, too. For my perspective, these people who share or put photographs on SNS, choose to violate the privacy right in order to protect the fundamental humans rights of the person who was taken a photograph.

These were my idea, and what we discussed about after I read my friend’s post. Since this was really powerful experience for me, and it is related to my blog post, I thought to share it here. I am glad if my friend and my idea can open you a door of a new perspective. 

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Power of Photographs


            In the last post, I built an image of photograph. In today’s post, I’d like to pick up real photographs and try to introduce the power of them.  However, discovering a photograph that influenced and actually changed the world is not an easy task. The reason is simple: every single person has a different way to feel and think. So, it is really up to the person whether the photo was significant as to change their attitude or not. Moreover, every one has a different way to make an actual action. I thought, however, discovering a photograph, which actually changed the world might be difficult, but it is possible to find the one with strong possibility to do so. It must be published and known by people all over the world and not an individual photograph. So, I came to the conclusion to look for Pulitzer winning photographs. This is the reason why the photographs I introduce on today’s post are all (apart one) Pulitzer winning one.


            To understand the reason why I arrived to Pulitzer Prize, you have to know what this prize is about. The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in journalism[i], literatures, dramas, and musical composition[ii]. “It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of American (Hungarian-born) publisher Joseph Pulitzer, and is administered by Columbia University in New York City.”[iii] For the journalism branch, the winner’s nationality does not matter as long as the peace of work is published on an American newspaper. The photographs are included in a “Public Service”, and since this is for a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper through the use of its journalistic resource, I thought this award suits to what I was looking for.


            There are many photographs that won a Pulitzer Prize. There are photographs of politic, religion, famine, poverty, children, or warfare. The photographs of today’s post, however, are related to the Vietnam War[iv].



http://mediacenter.dw.de/english/pictures/item/465785/





             
The first photograph is not the first time to appear in this blog[v]. Looking these photographs, what did you feel and think? I believe these photographs had a big importance to the world in order to make people aware for the war happening in Vietnam. Through the photograph, people cannot only see, but feel their plight of people who were taken. This is possible because, I quoted in the last time post, “photographs can photograph not only an object but also a specific time and a period.” So, these photographs, which show an inconvenient or dramatic situation, can be a trigger to know about them better. Not only that, people can also start to think what they actually can do for them. See the photograph knowing this is truly happening, is more powerful than just informing by the news.


There were people who used this power of photographs to make good. They tried to make the world more peaceful place. They say stop fight and make love instead. I am talking about John Lennon and Ono Yoko’s Bed-in action. Since these two were really famous in almost all over the world, they thought to use their own popularity to make the world more peaceful place. After they get marry, Lennon and Yoko, “the two master media manipulators used their celebrity for good, hosting a honeymoon "bed-in" for peace in room 902, the presidential suite of the Amsterdam Hilton. The press avidly pursued them, assuming that the famous nudists would make love for their cameras. Instead, the pajama-clad newlyweds spoke out about world peace. It was the honeymoon as performance art, interlaced with a protest against the Vietnam War.”[vi] This was really a powerful and meaningful action because many people knew them. And since this event became pretty famous one, a lot of people saw these photographs.


 http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1887244_1860957,00.html    


            In today’s post, I wanted to emphasize last blog post about the power of the photograph. Additionally, I wanted to let you know how the photograph can be use to make good.







[i] Including online journalism since 2008. More information available: http://www.pulitzer.org/new_eligibility_rules
[ii]2008 Winners and Finalists, available: http://www.pulitzer.org/awards/2008
[iii] History of The Pulitzer Prizes, http://www.pulitzer.org/historyofprizes
[iv] For further information about the war, look July 17’s post of this page: http://thinkfreelyspeakfreely.blogspot.jp/search/label/war
[vi]Susan Breslow Sardone “The John Lennon/Yoko Ono Bed-In”