On the Wall: How Photographers Envision Human Rights

There is a flood of gory photos coming from conflict zones around the world today thanks to advancements in digital imaging and connectivity. These photos, increasingly made by perpetrators of war crimes themselves, serve to reveal injustices; yet increasingly it seems that their function has been to excite. More than ever, it’s important to filter and withhold a particular representation of atrocity, in favor of another, more nuanced image. 

Photo credits, from top:

1. Manual laborers confront a military policeman at a gold mine in the state of Pará, Brazil. Sebastiao Salgado, 1986.

2. Like other children, a young boy in northern Uganda lives in constant danger of being abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Thomas Morley, 2005.

3. A woman stands at the edge of a mass grave in the mountains of Iraqi-Kurdistan. Susan Meisalas, 1992.

4. African-American laborers working in Mississippi’s fields. Ken Light, 1992.

See more.

gettyimagesnews:

An Iranian Kurdish female member of the Freedom Party of Kurdistan (PAK) sits with her weapon in Dibis, some 50 kms northwest of Kirkuk, on September 15, 2014. The world’s top diplomats pledged today to support Iraq in its fight against Islamic State militants by ‘any means necessary’, including ‘appropriate military assistance’, as leaders stressed the urgency of the crisis. Photo by Safin HamedAFP/Getty Images

guardian:

The crisis in Iraq escalated rapidly on Thursday as Iraqi Kurdish forces took control of key military installations in the major oil city of Kirkuk and the Sunni jihadi group Isis revealed its intention to move on Baghdad and cities in the southern Shia heartland. Full story here