I listened to this amazing program, appropriately enough, on the third anniversary of George Bush's declaration of "victory" in the Iraq war. The compassionate humanity of the photographer who is interviewed in this program stands in such stark contrast to the... Oh, never mind. Don't get me started.
This is both a simple and fantastically powerful program. Simple, because it consists of a studio interview with a war photographer, who tells the stories behind three of the photos he took at different stages of the conflict in Iraq. There are so few questions that most of the program is actually a monologue. Quiet piano music comes and goes throughout.
The program is powerful because of the ability of the photographer to convey what appears in each image, as well as to relate the heartbreaking details of what led up to the taking of the photos. Each of the pictures is immensely symbolic, and the photographer is able to explain their complex layers of meaning in simple but eloquent language.
By the end of this program, you've learned way more about the reality of the war in Iraq than you have in the last year's worth of news reports, analyses and commentaries that you've seen, heard or read.
This program is a half-hour long, but the real power is in the first twenty minutes or so. That's when the photos are center stage. The last third of the discussion is interesting, but is more abstract, and actually becomes a bit of an anti-climax. I would have taken a small number of the (very eloquent) conclusions from this last part of the discussion, and used them to end the program in a thoughtful way after that first twenty minutes.
There are going to be many more "turning points" in the ongoing debacle that is the Iraq war before it's over. So you will have, unfortunately, many more "pegs" to justify running this program (if you feel the need for such rationales). Find whatever reason you need, but do run it.
Review of RN Documentary: Three Photographs
Gary Covino
Posted on May 03, 2006 at 12:19 AM
I listened to this amazing program, appropriately enough, on the third anniversary of George Bush's declaration of "victory" in the Iraq war. The compassionate humanity of the photographer who is interviewed in this program stands in such stark contrast to the... Oh, never mind. Don't get me started.
This is both a simple and fantastically powerful program. Simple, because it consists of a studio interview with a war photographer, who tells the stories behind three of the photos he took at different stages of the conflict in Iraq. There are so few questions that most of the program is actually a monologue. Quiet piano music comes and goes throughout.
The program is powerful because of the ability of the photographer to convey what appears in each image, as well as to relate the heartbreaking details of what led up to the taking of the photos. Each of the pictures is immensely symbolic, and the photographer is able to explain their complex layers of meaning in simple but eloquent language.
By the end of this program, you've learned way more about the reality of the war in Iraq than you have in the last year's worth of news reports, analyses and commentaries that you've seen, heard or read.
This program is a half-hour long, but the real power is in the first twenty minutes or so. That's when the photos are center stage. The last third of the discussion is interesting, but is more abstract, and actually becomes a bit of an anti-climax. I would have taken a small number of the (very eloquent) conclusions from this last part of the discussion, and used them to end the program in a thoughtful way after that first twenty minutes.
There are going to be many more "turning points" in the ongoing debacle that is the Iraq war before it's over. So you will have, unfortunately, many more "pegs" to justify running this program (if you feel the need for such rationales). Find whatever reason you need, but do run it.