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Counterpoint: If this photo hadn't been taken or the photographer had felt shame at its content and not put it forward for print, nothing would be lost. There a
by estaseuropano 5y ago
Counterpoint: If this photo hadn't been taken or the photographer had felt shame at its content and not put it forward for print, nothing would be lost. There are thousands of photos taken the same day that could have become iconic instead. It's an artistically and emotionally good photo, but it holds no special significance outside the fame it gathered.
If it hadn't become famous you wouldn't miss this photo and instead maybe some 5 year old waving to her dad coming home, or a mother hugging her son would have become famous.
- CRConrad 5y agoOr just simply some other homecoming soldier kissing his consenting girlfriend.
- shard 5y agoI'm not sure if I buy that counterfactual. Taken to its logical conclusion, you can say that about any piece of art, or anyone you meet, or any event in your life. I don't believe that these are such interchangeable items. Taking your example of an alternate photo of a 5yo waving to her dad, or a mother hugging her son, they express different things compared with the photo in question, with the original photo giving me a sense of the joy of returning to a youthful life full of promise, while the 5yo waving photo would be of the relief of a father knowing that he will be able to raise his daughter, and the last would be of a dutiful son returning.