The story about my great grandfather Mashhoor Hadeetha Al-Jazi as told in my photobook got me thinking about war and how war has been photographed. The military has always played a significant part in my family. Nine members of my family have all had a distinguished career in the Jordanian military, but my great-grandfather’s, who was a Jordanian army commander in the Battle of K has always fascinated me and to a large extent influenced me in following in his footsteps. In this essay I will be investigating how war in the Middle East has been documented in photographs. This study will be based around analyzing a set of images from my great-grandfather’s Battle at and compare those images to images of recent conflicts in the region

The Purpose of War Photography:
I am really effected by the way wars have changed over time and how now a days war is much easier due to the industrial revolution some countries can destroy a whole other country from the comfort of an office. And years ago soldiers had to actually go on battle fields and put their lives at risk and that is how I lost my great grandfather.
“If war truly is a force that gives us meaning, photography is a force that gives us a means by which to envision that meaning.” (Bob Duggan,2012:1) Duggan is saying that photography of war is just as important as the war itself or else the war wouldn’t have much meaning.

This is my favorite war photographs, it was taken in 1964 in the Karamah Battle and you can see Mashhour in the front taking the lead. With his great heroic character as seen in the photograph wearing his CO uniform giving him this leader image. This photograph was taken by a war journalist back then when they had to be embedded within a troop risking their life to take these photographs that are the most important aspect of a war to complete its meaning as if there is a war without much photographs not many people will give it their attention, as the sad reality is that what people haven’t seen to them it hasn’t happened. The photographer took this photograph while Mashhour was leading his troop towards the war field and he took it just in time when you can see even though they’re headed towards war Mashhour still had a smile on his face which represent how proud he was to be the one chosen to lead these heroes to bring independence to their country. They were barging through the grass reaching half way their height, off road marching on the desert sands, waiting patiently for something to happen.

The photograph was taken under natural day light where the broad day desert sun light was positioned from above, making the photograph a bit over exposed mean while giving it a good glare. The aperture was made to be a wide range giving the photograph a deep depth of field but due to the poor quality of lenses at that time the photograph was not very focused and gave the image that small blare effect. And high speed shutter speed wasn’t available at that time so it there was a slight motion blur. The chosen shutter speed gave the photograph high grain. More over, the white balance of the camera settings made the photograph quite warm. The combination of the grass and soldiers give the image textural quality that is ‘busy’ to look at. The color of their uniform blends in with the background. And the combination of the dark soldiers with the bright environment gave the image more quality.

This is a recent photograph of a modern day war in Afghanistan taken on November 2001, these american marines where in a country that isn’t theirs and were fighting the locals in it. You can see the difference between this photograph and the old photograph of the Karamah battle, in this photo it represents how much the soldiers had to carry on their back as there is too much evolved technology so war became more competitive with time. These marines look very exhausted as they’re walking through the sunny desert sun with a lot of load on them. Further more, in the Karamah battle photograph the background was just of an old tank which is what they used to use in the old days meanwhile the back ground of this photograph is off a more evolved and technological weaponry vehicle which is a helicopter. And i believe that war now a days is not as much effort taking but if more destructive as to the evolution of weaponry which increased competition between nations.

This photograph was taken using a state of the art camera which is easier to use as its lighter with better quality and finally more settings option. This photograph was taken with the sunlight that’s positioned facing the soldiers as the main source of light, you can see that as the reflection of the light on their faces prove it. And that brightness made the image over exposed with a slight glare. And the advanced lens was more focused with a deep depth of field making it sharp. Due to the option of faster shutter speed with new cameras. The shadow effect on the soldier’s faces contribute to the secrecy of them. The white balance on the photo though made it quite cold. The pattern of the soldiers walking in a single file behind each other on the arid land gave the photograph a good pattern quality.

War photography was harder to achieve good quality photographs in the old times although it was easier to have access to war. Zooms were then clumsy, heavy and of poor optical quality. Meanwhile digital cameras today can automatically adjust the film speed setting to the available light, are much better than film in very low light, have rapid auto focus, and can be used with zooms that give good optical quality across a wide range. With a laptop and a satellite phone, pictures can be adjusted and sent to the publisher within minutes, while in the old times the photographer had to keep his camera safe with them until they reached back to their base, but if they got stuck on the way or died then the photographs will never be published. And unfortunately now a days there is so many restrictions on taking photographs in a war zone mostly because the countries with the greater power don’t want to show the world what they are doing so basically no photographs that show evidence of war is allowed in these countries, which is very discomforting as people are just sitting in their homes doing there daily stuff normally around the world and have no clue about what is actually happening in these countries with war. What is even worse is that now editing photographs is very easily done so countries with more power can just easily edit a photograph that shows something disturbing to show something normal from the comfort of an office.

In conclusion after doing my research on the purpose of war photograph and got deep in it, i found out how important a photographer can be, as if a war didn’t have any photographs it would have much meaning to the people who weren’t there. And then that lead me to questioning how war changed with time and evolution of technology. And the most artist who inspired me but i didn’t mention her a lot was Julian Stallabrass who went and risked her life in the Iraq war to get the finest of war photographs, and used her words through my essay to direct me on the right path of war photograph.

Bibliography
Julian,S.(2013) Photoworks. Grand Parade, Brighton, BN2 9