A Photographers Focus Essays -- Pictures Violence Ireland British Ess

A Photographers FocusOn March 20, 1972 at 1145 a.m. an anonymous mobilise call was made to police headquarters in Belfast, Federal Ireland warning of a bomb in crowded Church Street (Fisk 2). At 1152 a.m. a second emergency call reached police headquarters confirming the threat of a bomb (Fisk 2). The police made efforts to evacuate the passage as quickly as possible. Then, at 1155 a.m. headquarters received a third emergency call warning of a bomb, only if this time the caller gave the location of the bomb to be in the adjoining Donegall Street (Fisk 2). Three minutes later a 100-pound gelignite bomb set off in Donegall Street killing six people and wounding 147 others (Fisk 1). The bombing was a terrorist act by the Irish Republican Army (IRA), whose mission is to repel the British out of Northern Ireland.It was in the ensuing minutes of the explosion that Derek Brind of the Press Association probably arrived at the gruesome scene nearly a hundred young girls lay on the stree t or in the shattered doorways screaming with pain and shock (Fisk 1). As he approached the site, he spotty a British paratrooper holding a young Irish girl in his arms to comfort her (Dewar 62) and snapped this photoWhat makes this, or any photograph, so unique is that the viewer actually sees what the photographer saw when he or she took the picture we too, see the paratrooper clutching the wounded girl in his arms. What we dont see, however, is what takes place around the picture. The photographer chooses where we look and in doing so, decides what deserves attention and what can be left out. This selection process is entirely subjective, and as such, it is a reproach of the photographers perspectivenot just literally, but figurat... ... we too, begin to become aware of the cruel nature of mankind. This is what Derek Brind saw in the violence in Northern Ireland and this is what he tried to convey through this image. Hence, what may appear to be a photo about how loving and ca ring fellow man can be, is genuinely a criticism of the inhumanity of man. This is the photographers message as reflected through his choice of focus in the image.Works CitedBerger, John. shipway of Seeing. Penguin Books,1972. 7-33.Dewar, Michael, Colonel. The British Army in Northern Ireland. London Arms and Armour Press, 1996. 57-79.Fisk, Robert. Six killed, 147 injured by bomb after misleading calls. The LondonTimes. March 21, 1972 A1-A2.Pratt, Mary Louise. Arts of the Contact Zone. Ways of Reading. Ed. David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky. 5th ed. Boston St. Martins, 1999. 582-596.