This statement is obviously accurate, but it does not take into account temporary changes in mood, we might know its wrong to kill another human being, but feel there is justification for photgraphing somebody else doing it.
Execution of VietCong soldier 1968
Equally we may have ethical or religious qualms about suicide, yet would we stop to photograph it if we passing?
This puts power in the hands of those making the images. Both could be used for propaganda. We may see either of these occurences as good or bad, important or not, but its those who then look at the images produced who have the final word.
I can put a picture of a dead tree on a wall. If I explain its dead because it was poisoned by broadleaf weedkillers, then viewers may be symnpathetic to its passing. With no explanation it is just a dead tree.
But when its the last tree, what then? That ha nothing to do with my knowledge, my perspective or my mood. It is a record of fact. Thats the distinction. We might take photographs as an aid to memory of a special occasion, a holiday, a wedding, a birth. Our mtoives are selfish and are informed by the lives we have led.
Photography as information, or documentary is something quite different, as the images above show.
