From Landsat to SERVIR: Saving Earth with Satellite Imagery

In 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. began a drive to register black voters, the state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill occurred, T.G.I. Friday’s opened its first restaurant in New York City, and Landsat was an idea in the mind of the director of the US Geological Survey, William Pecora (“Historical Events for Year 1965”). “The Landsat program offers the longest continuous global record of the Earth’s surface; it continues to deliver visually stunning and scientifically valuable images of our planet” (“Landsat Then and Now”). The original idea for Landsat was to gather facts about our natural resources on Earth remotely, using a satellite. At the time, weather satellites had been used to monitor Earth’s atmosphere, but they gathered no terrain data.

The idea of Landsat wasn’t met with complete enthusiasm at first. The Bureau of Budget felt that high-altitude aircraft could be used rather than a satellite, saving money and resources. The Department of Defense worried that a civilian project would interfere with their clandestine missions, and there were geopolitical concerns with photographing foreign countries without their permission. Finally, in 1970 NASA obtained permission to build the satellite; it took a miraculous 2 years to build and be launched. “In 1975, NASA Administrator Dr. James Fletcher predicted that if one space age development would save the world, it would be Landsat and its successor satellites” (“Landsat Then and Now”). This is especially true for one image in particular.

Fast-forward to the late 1980s. Tom Sever, an archaeologist, was studying ancient Mayan cities and ruins at the time. Looking to keep them preserved, he was working with NASA and the National Geographic Society to document archeological sites, both known and undiscovered, before the river was dammed. “Sever pioneered the use of computer software to read satellite images of the Earth and identify ruins all over the world, using a technique known as remote sensing. The computer processes grayscale digital images from satellites; the user slides the data through a series of mathematical functions to reveal features that otherwise might remain hidden” (Ballon). Basically Sever would study Landsat images, add some mathematical magic to the data, and he was able to find archeological sites.

International Borders from Space: Mexico-Guatemala borders

During that time, he found a Landsat image that showed the border between Mexico and Guatemala as clearly as if somebody were to have hand-drawn the lines on the image. The western portion of the image was recorded from Landsat 4 on 20 May 1988; the eastern portion was recorded from Landsat 5 on 14 April 1986. In the image, the viewer can see Mexico’s cleared forests and Guatemala’s dense, rich forests. Mexico had plans to build a dam in the Usumacinta River (the largest river in Mesoamerica) for hydroelectric power. Damming the river would have not only affected the forests in Guatemala, it would have also obliterated the Mayan ruins that Sever was working diligently to document and study. Sever explained, “We were trying to see as much archeological information as we could before the flood waters removed the modern day Maya Indians as well as destroyed the ancient sites” (“Landsat Top Ten – International Borders: Mexico and Guatemala”).

The image only shows the results. Why was there such a stark difference between the two countries? Sometimes, political realities are shown best in the landscape of the country. At first glance, the viewer may consider that Guatemala had better environmental laws, and placed a higher value on sustaining their lush forests. This was not the reality at the time. Mexico was relatively stable as a country. They had the means and desire to develop their land. Guatemala, on the other hand, was in the midst of a civil war. Rebels had moved to the Petén, limiting development in that region and leaving the area untouched because of an inability to safely harvest the forest.

Sever was not shocked at the image; rather, he was surprised about the responses he got when he shared it. “‘When I produced it,’ says Server, ‘I thought everyone in the world knew about this. It was surprising to see how for everybody it was news, alarming news’” (“Landsat Top Ten – International Borders: Mexico and Guatemala”). And share the image, he did!

First, Sever showed the image to Andrés Lenhoff, the Executive Director of the National Council of Protected Areas of Guatemala. Lenhoff was a friend of Sever’s, and the two worked together; Lenhoff also had regular meetings with the President of Guatemala, Vinicio Cerezo. So the next time Lenhoff met with President Cerezo, the photograph was shown. But the photograph wasn’t simply a 5x7 image. Jim Nations, Vice President of the National Parks Converation Association’s Center for Park Research, described the scene:

He takes it in to his next meeting, a big image, like a meter across and he rolls it across his desk, and the President looks at it and says the Spanish equivalent of “son of a gun!”

Next, the image was published in the October 1989 issue of National Geographic Magazine. This began a discussion between the Presidents of Mexico and Guatemala on the issue of conservation and preservation. These talks became action when national parks and wildlife reserves were created in both countries. President Cerezo later shared with Nations and Sever that the image of the Mexico-Guatemala border was the deciding factor for the Guatemalan Congress to approve his creation of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in 1990. Five national parks, three wildlife reserves, and a sustainable use forest are all under the shelter of a 4-million acre park all because of one image from Landsat technology.

This image also brought Sever to the spotlight with Jorge Cabrera, the head of the Central American Commission on the Environment and Development (CCAD). As a result CCAD, USAID (US Agency for International Development), World Bank, and NASA agreed to conduct environmental research together and created SERVIR. In Spanish it means, “to serve”. Today, SERVIR delivers critical intelligence to help countries assess environmental threats and respond to and assess damage from natural disasters. What the image of the Mexico-Guatemala border did in 1980, SERVIR does full time.

With hubs all over the world, SERVIR helps to understand and respond to natural disasters, combat environmental problems, improve agricultural practices, and monitor air quality. Managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, the program began in 2004. “SERVIR’S primary technical work occurs at the hubs, which are staffed by in-country and in-region experts. The hubs coordinate with other international and national organizations in their respective regions regarding climate change, environmental monitoring, disasters, weather and mapping, among others” (“Earth-observing Camera Launches to International Space Station”).  The Mesoamerica hub was the first, and focuses on Central America and the Caribbean. The African hub, created in 2008, is based in Nairobi, Kenya. In 2010, the Himalaya hub was created for the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region.

Like the image of the Mexico-Guatemala border, many images collected from space are used to show humans the consequences (intended or otherwise) of their environmental decisions. Consider the following image:

Aral Sea in Central Asia

The three images are photographs taken of the same area in Central Asia. The Aral Sea, once the fourth largest lake in the world, has been shrinking since the 1960s due to its two feeder rivers being diverted. The visual result is stunning, yet frightening. The images, from left to right, were taken in 1977, 1998, and 2010 respectively. The unintended consequences run deeper than this, though. The local fishing industry was destroyed as the fish died off due to the brackish waters turning intensely salty. The two feeder rivers were diverted to aid in agriculture; this meant pesticides, fertilizers, and a host of other chemicals made their way into the waters. As the water dried up, those chemicals were found in the dusty ground. When the wind would blow, the chemical-laden dust would cover the crops causing a higher rate of health problems in the region. Without the large body of water to moderate the weather, the summers are hotter and the winters are colder.

Ashtosh Limaye, a NASA scientist who works with the SERVIR project, described this situation as a perfect example of how SERVIR can help (Limaye). The hub would take the three images to local and regional authorities to educate the causes of the higher cancer rates in the area, the polluted sands, and the more drastic weather patterns. Then, a plan will be devised to improve the conditions for both the people in the region and the region itself. But sometimes, the images are simply archived until years down the road when time can show the effects of devastation.

The following image is from Kuwait Oil Fires. During the first Gulf War in the early 1990s, Iraqi troops set fire to over 650 oil wells in Kuwait as they withdrew from the country. The following shows before, during, and after the event; from left to right, the images were taken in August 1990, June 1991, and January 1992:

Kuwait Oil Fires

The fires burned for ten months; firefighters from ten countries traveled to the area to help extinguish the fires. After the fires were extinguished, oil lakes remained. A layer of soot and oil fell from the sky and mixed with the desert sands to create a sort of “tarcrete”. This covered 5% of Kuwait’s landscape (“Landsat Top Ten – Kuwait Oil Fires”). During the June 1991 image capture, the fires were burning so hot that the detectors overloaded temporarily. This turned the red dots into red lines (as indicated in the middle image above).

In November of 2009 a hurricane brought terrible weather to El Salvador. With the weather, came flooding and mudslides. Almost 200 people died, thousands were left homeless, and over $150 million in damages were calculated. “The satellite images provided by SERVIR mapped the mud flow and assisted officials in understanding the full extend of the hurricane’s damage and how it could be avoided in the event of future disasters” (“Daniel Irwin: Using NASA technology to solve disaster, environmental conditions”).

SERVIR has its own camera now. Located on the International Space Station (ISS), ISERV looks out of the Earth-facing window in the station’s Destiny laboratory. One of the benefits of having ISERV on the ISS is that astronauts are nearby when technology fails. Ground control is able to communicate with the astronauts and give directions on how to fix the failure so the camera can come back up. But there are also downfalls to having ISERV on the ISS. For starters, the window in the station’s Destiny lab only allows for a small opening for the camera to look through. This means that the camera can only capture what the ISS is flying over at the time. When the earthquake hit Japan in early 2011, images were not recorded of the resulting destruction from either the quake and the tsunami because the ISS wasn’t able to capture the scenes according to the timing of the ISS’s location and when Japan was in sunlight (Limaye). If the ISS has a loss of contact with ground control, images are not captured either.

I look forward to the day when ISERV will become its own satellite, separate from the ISS. I can only wish that this satellite will be controlled in flight pattern and direction by ground control so the camera can capture real-time events as they happen rather than having to wait until the satellite’s orbit pattern marries up with the location of the disaster. There is no known desire at this time to improve the resolution of the ISERV camera, and I suspect that the reason stems from the use of satellite imagery having been a hot topic in the debate of personal privacy. NASA scientists are happy with the resolution at this time, but look forward to when they can have better control over where the ISERV camera flies and when it can shoot in the sunlight.

Works Cited

Ballon, Massie Santos. “Tom Sever, archaeologist”. www.scicom.ucsc.edu. 25 May 2008. Web. 6 August 2014.

“Daniel Irwin: Using NASA technology to solve disaster, environmental conditions”. www.washingtonpost.com. 18 January 2010. Web. 6 August 2014.

“Earth-observing Camera Launches to International Space Station”. www.nasa.gov. 19 July 2012. Web. 6 August 2014.

“Historical Events for Year 1965”. www.historyorb.com. n.d. Web. 6 August 2014.

“Landsat Science”. www.landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov. n.d. Web. 6 August 2014.

“Landsat Then and Now”. www.landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov. nd. Web. 6 August 2014.

“Landsat Top Ten – International Borders: Mexico and Guatemala”. www.nasa.gov. 23 July 2011. Web. 5 July 2014.

“Landsat Top Ten – Kuwait Oil Fires”. www.nasa.gov. 23 July 2012. Web. 6 August 2014.

Limaye, Ashtosh. Personal Interview. 7 August 2014.

O. Wiston Link: Shooting the Dying Trains

Born in 1914 in Brooklyn, NY, O. Winston Link was an American photographer who found his love for photography, locomotives, and rail yards as a teenager (“O. Winston Link”). He studied at, and graduated from, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn with a degree in Civil Engineering. Shortly after, he accepted a job at a public relations firm as a photographer. This began his long, successful photographic career. He is best known for his photographs of steam locomotives. “For Link the trains were comparable to Garbo and Dietrich at their most glamorous” (“O. Winston Link”). Link is also credited for pioneering night photography, mainly because the steam looked a dingy grey during the day, but a brilliantly bright white against a night sky. He also appreciated night photography because it removed the ever-moving sun from the scene, allowing him to work without having to reposition lights and worry about shadows during his shoots.

During WWII Link was unable to contribute to the war effort directly because of near-total deafness in one ear. As a result, he began working in a wartime laboratory to help develop a device that would discover submarines using low-flying aircraft.  The lab was located near the Long Island Rail Road, and his love for the locomotives was revived. He ignored the wartime ban on railroad photography.

Link had a famously cranky character and disposition, but that obviously didn't detract others from working with him. “Usually with an assistant, he drove to his sites and, for nighttime scenes, began setting up complex lighting equipment, a painstaking process that could take from several hours to three days.” (Loke, Margarett).  He had a flair for storytelling in his images; even today a viewer feels like they are viewing the scene through a window rather than a photograph.

In the mid-1950s, while on assignment photographing modern comforts for his public relations firm, Link had an epiphany. At this time, most of the major American railroads were replacing steam locomotives with diesels and Link felt a strong need to document the dying days of this type of railroading. The next five years found Link traveling through small railroad towns in the Shenandoah Valley and Appalachian mountains, shooting photographs, film, and making recordings of the concluding era.

“Not only did he get Norfolk & Western’s approval for his project, but he was given a key to the railroad’s switch boxes. This meant he could telephone dispatchers for exact arrival times and, on occasion, to ask them to delay a train or to backtrack so he could take the desired picture” (Loke). In modern times airlines are rarely operational according to schedule and cell phones allow for immediate contact; realizing the weight of the opportunity N&W offered to Link can be difficult. If a train was even one minute behind schedule tracks could become clogged and collisions could occur. Having the power to ask a conductor to delay their schedule so a photograph could be taken shows the value N&W held for Link’s photography.

Link’s work has been described as being “…on the brink on the absurd, but stop just short…” and “tell-it-like-is (but-never-was)” (McCann). His style dances somewhere between fine art and documentary; on the one hand he was documenting the end of an era, but on the other hand he posed his subjects in an effort to get what appears to be a candid picture of them. His style gave him the opportunity to be a grand storyteller through his images. His formative years having been spent in Brooklyn, he idealized small-towns and spent much of his time photographing the Iron Horses in such a setting. His project ended in 1960, just before N&W retired their last steam engine and became a fleet of all diesel trains.

Nearly 30 years after Link’s epiphany, he began to exhibit his works in museums in the United States, and Europe. Several books have been written by Link including Ghost Trains: Railroad Photographs of the 1950s, Night trick and The Last Steam Railroad in America; others have been written about him like O. Winston Link: Life Along the Line: A Photographic Portrait of America’s Last Great Steam Railroad. But the best tribute to his work resides within the walls of an old N&W station in Roanoke, VA. The O. Winston Link Museum was Link’s final project. He died in 2001, missing the grand opening of the museum in 2004. As disappointing as this may be, missing his own museum opening is not the most tragic detail about the end of his days.

Link was married to his second wife, Conchita, for nearly a decade before he sought divorce. The hostile divorce battle became entangled with Link’s accusations of Conchita committing grand larceny, isolation, and imprisonment. He alleged that Conchita caused his driver’s license to be suspended, cut his telephone off, and told gallery owners that Link suffered from Alzheimer’s disease (Loke). Conchita was indicted and convicted of stealing 1,400 prints worth over $1.6 million; none of the stolen prints or negatives has been recovered. In 1996, Conchita was sentenced to 6 1/3-to-20 years in prison. According to an interview with Link, some of the stolen prints and negatives shows the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge being built (Loke).

Link, O. Winston. Hotshot Eastbound. 1956. Print. O. Winston Link Museum.

In one of Link’s most famous photographs, Hotshot Eastbound (see above), the viewer will see three modern forms of transportation: on the big screen an airplane is flying through the air, cars are parked in a drive-in movie theater, and a steam locomotive cuts through the scene at the top of the photograph. The image was created at night, giving the photograph Link’s signature white billows of steam from the train. The use of lines in the photograph is strong. The power lines almost give a track for the steam to glide along, the cars line up side-by-side to view the movie, and the line of steam fills in where a dark sky would be. This photograph is riddled with metaphors. The steam locomotive is rushing out of the photograph as quickly as it seemed to be rushing out of use on the railways. Later, in the darkroom, Link added an image of an airplane (from a different image during that night of shooting) because his flash washed out the image on the screen during this shot. The way the plane is angled, it’s hard to ignore the symbolism of airplanes rushing in the scene to replace trains as a mode of transportation. The cars, pointing toward the plane, seem to stare down the plane in a defiant manner that states, “We’re here to fight for center stage as well”, while completely ignoring the train altogether. No matter how you view the photograph, it’s hard to ignore the couple in the bottom of the picture plane. They embrace each other in the privacy of their car, gazing upon the airplane while also ignoring the train.

O. Winston Link. Shaffers Crossing Roundhouse. Roanoke, West Virginia. 1958. Print. O. Winston Link Museum.

As Link spent his days photographing the final days of steam locomotives, he didn’t forget that these massive beauties couldn’t run themselves. “For all the technical demands he made of himself, Link regarded people as the lifeblood of his pictures – he disparaged solitary train photographs as ‘hardware shots’ – and the fierce pride of the railroad families came through in his pictures” (Dell’Amore). This rings true in Shaffers Crossing Roundhouse. As an electrician cleans the headlight of a train, Link composes and shoots the moment. It is difficult to remember that these images were, by and large, staged to look candid. The moment looks almost intimate between the train and her controller. If the train were a horse, the electrician may have instead been feeding it a carrot while brushing her mane. Rather, the electrician is taking the time to maintain the large piece of machinery despite the fast-approaching retirement. Looking at images of steam trains lets the viewer know that the invention was large, but Shaffers Crossing Roundhouse reminds us of exactly how overbearing the machine was.

O. Winston Link. The Birmingham Special Crossing Bridge 201. 1957. Print. O. Winston Link Museum.

The Birmingham Special Crossing Bridge 201 shows the locomotive rushing out of the photograph as a personal vehicle (a truck) enters and is pointing directly at the viewer. The brilliant white smoke pours out of the train, drawing the eye to the train and making the large piece of machinery appear to be slicing through the scene quickly and on a strict path. The truck, on the other hand, chugs through the image relatively slowly; but this independent piece of machinery is able to divert from any chosen path to create its own journey.  This image almost prefigures the upcoming hippie movement with the big, traditional social status of fighting wars, segregation, and status quo being represented by the train above; the free spirit, changes in societal values, and desire to make one’s own path is represented in the smaller truck below. The truck doesn’t take on the locomotive head-on; it would be suicide. Rather, it questions the path of the train and chooses to follow a different one. With the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, and Women’s Liberation about to come to the forefront of America’s focal point, The Birmingham Special Crossing Bridge 201 almost foreshadows this turning point in American History before any of it even happened.

Several modern photographers credit Link as inspirations for their more contemporary works. Among them, Gregory Crewdson is a modern-day photographer who is one of the pioneers of large-scale contemporary color photography (“American Darkness: Gregory Crewdson and O. Winston Link”). Like Link, Crewdson’s scenes are elaborately staged, and many of his images portray small-town America. Both photographers have strong, dramatic images set between dusk and dawn. But while Link’s black and white night photography is comforting and nostalgic, Crewdson’s color photography is tense and slightly unsettling. Link devoted his vision to idealizing small-town America; Crewdson shows destitution. Link’s images deal with literal images of trains with symbolic meanings to be interpreted, Crewdson’s images deal with emotional moments between humans leading the viewer to ponder what happened before the photograph was taken, and what will happen after. Both photographers worked in the transitional stages; Link showed the transition from steam railroading, Crewdson’s photographs lie in the transitional moments between what happened before the photograph was taken and the resulting situation afterward. See an example of Crewdson’s work below. Link’s legacy lives on in his published works, and the photographers he has influenced since.

Works Cited

“American Darkness: Gregory Crewdson and O. Wilston Link”. www.danzingergallery.com. 9 May – 14 June 2013. Web. 3 August 2014.

Dell’Amore, Christine. “The Big Picture”. www.smithsonianmag.com. December 2005, Web. 3 August 2014.

Loke, Margarett. “O. Winston Link, Photographer, Dies at 86.” www.nytimes.com. 2 February 2001. Web. 2 August 2014.

McCann, Matt. “When Steam Locomotion Ground to a Halt”. www.lens.blogs.nytimes.com. 16 November 2012. The NY Times. Web. 30 July 2014. http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/when-steam-locomotion-ground-to-a-halt/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

“O. Winston Link”. www.danzigergallery.com. n.d. Web. 30 July 2014. http://www.danzigergallery.com/artists/owinston-link

O. Winston Link Museum. 2014. Web. 30 July 2014. http://www.linkmuseum.org/

“O. Winston Link Exhibition”. www.railphoto-art.org. Center for Railroad Photography & Art, n.d. Web. 30 July 2014. http://www.railphoto-art.org/exhibits/link/

Eddie Adams' "Street Execution of a Vietcong Prisoner"

Eddie Adams was an American, Pulitzer-Prize winning photographer and photojournalist. He was born on June 12, 1933 in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. After a long, successful career he died in Manhattan on September 19, 2004 at the age of 71 (Grundberg). From Korea to Kuwait, and 11 other wars in between, Adams is well known for his war photography, but he found success with portraits of high-profile celebrities and politicians as well. “He remains one of the most published photographers in the U.S., with his work gracing the pages of newspapers and magazines like TIME, VOGUE, VANITY FAIR, and PARADE. His career spanned journalism, corporate, editorial, fashion, entertainment, and advertising photography” (“Who is Eddie Adams?”).  A few of Adams’ more famous images include Mother Teresa cradling an armless baby orphan, individual portraits of Fidel Castro, and Anwar Sadat, and a portrait of Arnold Schwarzenegger with a yellow rubber duck.

Adams received over 500 awards during his photographic career. Among them, the Pulitzer Prize was awarded to him for his photograph Street Execution of a Vietcong Prisoner: 

Hal Buell, former head of the Photography Service at the Associated Press, is quoted as saying, “No war was ever photographed the way Vietnam was, and no war will ever be photographed again the way Vietnam was photographed” (Adler). At the beginning of World War II, photographs were being censored in the United States in an effort to keep photography from undermining the war effort, but images of war eventually did help to gain U.S. support for the war (“War Photography”). Perhaps this successful use of photography during war is why photographers in Vietnam had such incredible access. “All a photographer had to do, says Buell, ‘is convince a helicopter pilot to let him get on board a chopper going out to a battle scene’” (Adler). Photojournalists and war photographers do not enjoy this same access in more modern times.

“The black and white photographs created by Eddie Adams have both aesthetical and informative value. His biggest strength was close-ups and portraits that depict each wrinkle, spot, and emotion on the face of the portrayed person” (Farah). This proves to be very true in Street Execution of a Vietcong Prisoner. In the photograph, South Vietnamese National Police Chief Brig. General Nguyen Ngoc Loan is seen tensely gripping a revolver that is pointed to the temple of a man whose arms appear to be tied behind his back. The General’s finger is on the trigger, and the man’s face shows that he is bracing for the inevitable at the very moment the bullet enters his skull.

The photograph was shot on the streets of Cholon, the Chinese section of Saigon, Vietnam in 1968 (Adler). Just two days prior to the photograph, the North Vietnamese communists launched the Tet Offensive causing fighting to break out in the US Embassy compound in Saigon. Adams was covering the Vietnam War for the Associated Press when he took the iconic photograph. He had this to say about the moments leading up to, during, and just after the photograph was taken:

They walked him down to the street corner. We were taking pictures. He turned out to be a Viet Cong lieutenant. And out of nowhere came this guy who we didn’t know. I was about five feet away and he pulled out his pistol. [General Loan] shot him in the head and walked away. And walked by us and said ‘They killed many of my men and many of your people’” (“Saigon Execution”).

The prisoner was executed for murdering a South Vietnamese Colonel, his wife, and their six children. Adams got to know General Loan after the photograph was taken, and he held much respect for the man. Because of this photograph, “…Adams is recognized by many who lived through the Vietnam War Era as the photojournalist who helped end a war, though apparently not in a way that he intended” (“Ongoing Discussion: Media’s Impact on Opinion”).

He was quite shocked by the reaction of the photograph. In a multimedia interview with Adams published on Newseum.org, Adams describes his confusion with American’s demonstrations and upset over the image: “…because in a war, people die in wars. And what I ask people a lot, too, is if you’re this man… the General… and you just caught this guy after he killed some of your people, you know, it’s a war. How do you know you wouldn’t have pulled that trigger yourself?”

Adams began his career as a war photographer as a Marine Corps Combat Photographer in Korea in the early 1950s (“Who is Eddie Adams?”); Street Execution of a Vietcong Prisoner was shot in 1968. Adams had as much as 18 years of combat experience from behind his lens. His years of experience in war zones hardened him to the tragedies of war. On the other hand, the US Government’s previous practice of censoring photographs from war softened the American people’s views on war. When the only images you see from war are the glorious victories, and the already dead, viewing an image of suffering or death in action is a bit much to endure.

Either way, the photograph of a prisoner’s close-up execution caused much controversy in the United States. “It was held up at demonstrations by members of the intensifying anti-war movement and became one of the two or three iconic photos that symbolized the war for many people” (Adler). This use of his photograph plagued Adams until the day he died. He “felt that the photo was taken by reflex and wasn’t particularly good, and in fact overshadowed some of his other work that he thought was better” (Zell).  

Questions have been raised about whether Adams should have put the camera down to intervene on behalf of the prisoner. If photojournalists were to do so, how we would have accurate news? It seems heartless, but if the world doesn’t know what is going on then they can’t make changes. Adams’ job wasn’t to fight in the war; it wasn’t to make the war conditions better for either side. His job was to document the war and inform the world of what was happening.

“Information can lead to changes in public policy, laws, funding or perhaps just improved behavior” (Kobré 368). Consider Dr. Martin Luther King’s reaction to Flip Schulke during the racial clashes in Selma, Alabama. Schulke was covering the situation for Life magazine and saw Sherriff Clark’s deputies being physical with children. “He stopped shooting and began dragging the children away. Martin Luther King, who led the march, called out to Schulke, ‘The world doesn’t know this happened because you didn’t photograph it. I’m not being cold-blooded about it, but it is so much more important for you to take a picture of us getting beaten up’” (Kobre 368).

Adams should not have altered his actions in Saigon in 1968. His job was to record the events, not to intervene based on his personal opinions of them. It seems heartless, but it is of the upmost importance that photojournalists only document the scene. One of the few exceptions would be the rare situation where the photojournalist is in a life or death situation, and there is simply no way for his story to be seen otherwise. Look at the story of LTG (R) Hal Moore and Joseph L. Galloway in the battle of Ia Drang. Joe was a photojournalist attached with (then) LTC Moore’s battalion to cover a mission. The mission went badly, and at one point Joe had to pick up a rifle to fight for his life. Had he not gotten involved in the battle, his recordings of the war up to that point may never had been told. When the recorder of history dies, so does the story. He put the rifle down when he could continue to record the events of the day, and continued to do his job (Moore).

There is a cliché that goes “if a tree falls in the woods and nobody is around to hear it, does the tree make a sound?” It is not the job of the photojournalist to help the tree fall; nor is it the job of the photojournalist to keep the tree from falling. It is the photojournalist’s job to show up, document the fall of the tree, and leave.

Photography is a responsibility not to be taken lightly, especially documentary photography or photojournalism. One person’s snapshot is another person’s evidence of how life is lived in a particular area. It is easy to believe that photography should be allowed everywhere, but this poses many problems. The issue of privacy is big, especially when it comes to dressing rooms and bathrooms in public areas. Celebrities have to live lives with curtains drawn and walls separating their homes from the world around them because paparazzi neglect to allow them a moment of rest otherwise. But in public, there should also be an educated decision on whether a moment needs to be documented, and in what manner.

Adams later discussed the iconic image Street Execution of a Viet Cong Prisoner and said, “The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them; but photographs do lie, even without manipulation” (Farah). Adams is referring to the fact that the photograph only shows what is in the four corners of the frame. It doesn’t show what happened before the execution, nor does it show what happened after. But beyond that, the framing of a photograph can add or detract from the scene as well. What if Adams zoomed in on the prisoner and removed the General from the frame except for his arm and the gun? Would the public’s perception of the image change at all?

Image manipulation is not new; the portrait of President Lincoln posing next to a desk with papers and books on top, an American flag draped in the corner behind a globe sitting on a checkerboard floor is well known and often used to depict the former President.

Many people today may be shocked to find out that this photograph was “Photoshopped” before Photoshop was even created. The only thing “Lincoln” about this photograph is the head of the human; the rest of the scene comes from a separate portrait of John Calhoun, a Southern politician (“Photo Tampering throughout History”). The manipulation techniques to create this composite took much skill and even more time. Today, such a manipulation would take little time at all for even the novice photographer. As such we have been conditioned to question every photograph, especially those that seem to have a significant affect on the news and current events. “More often than not, these scandals are either related to politics or fashion. Does this say something about the deceptive nature of those two worlds?” (Eisinger).

In May, 2011 the United States White House announced that a Navy Seal team raided Osama bin Laden’s compound and killed him. A photograph of the inside of the Situation Room at the White House was later released; it showed 13 people (two of which were women) who witnessed the raid. A Brooklyn-based Hasidic newspaper removed the two women from the photograph when they published the news, citing their policy of “never printing photos of women in its pages because it thinks they could be sexually suggestive” (“Hillary Clinton Removed From Situation Room Photo By Der Tzitung, Hasidic Newspaper”).  This blatant manipulation of a photograph to alter an historic scene was immediately noticed, and further reinforced the public’s skepticism on modern use of photography. 

The saddest thing about removing Mrs. Clinton from the photograph is that in doing so, the newspaper removed the compassion from the scene. While the men look at the images before them, they do so with unmoved expressions on their faces, and arms crossed over their chests. Mrs. Clinton’s hand across her mouth, and her eyes showing concern and a little bit of fear gives the scene a sprinkling of humanity as our government sent a team of highly trained individuals to seek out and destroy an enemy. Mrs. Clinton’s presence in the scene shows that we, as a nation, are not cold-hearted murderers; we do not take lightly the task of taking of lives. The way she is framed in the image (sitting exactly on the rule of thirds) gives her the honor of being the focal point of the photograph. Removing that and publishing the altered photograph goes beyond misleading. It is downright unethical because it completely rewrites the history of that day.

A less obvious manipulation still had a huge effect on the public opinion. OJ Simpson, a famous NFL football player, was arrested in 1994 and charged with the double murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald L. Goldman. His mug shot ran on the covers of Time magazine and Newsweek at the same time. Time decided to manipulate Simpson’s face to make his skin darker, and gave a vignette to the scene creating a more sinister photograph. Newsweek ran the untouched photograph. After noticing the differences, the public accused editors at Time magazine of being racist, and trying to sway public opinion before the trial even started.

Photojournalists and social documentarians have a tough job. They endure harsh conditions, are expected to not alter the scene (much less get involved in the scene), and must record history as it is made. Now, more than ever, their ethics are questioned, their photographs are criticized, and the repercussions of doing their job poorly are harsh. Their compensation is minor compared to other genres of photography, and their biggest competition today is usually not another publication’s staff photographer; rather, it is the average citizen with a camera phone and access to social media. With these social and economical conditions, its no wonder ethical lines are skewed. Nor is it any wonder why the general public is reticent of believing everything they see in print. I’m sure Eddie Adams would have hoped, at least in the slightest, that his photograph Street Execution of a Viet Cong Prisoner was questioned and dismissed as often as many photographs are today. It may have brought him a more peaceful (emotionally) life.

Works Cited

Adams, Eddie. Street Execution of a Vietcong Prisoner. 1 February 1968. Gelatin Silver Print. Adams Photographic Archive. 28 July 2014.

Adler, Margot. “The Vietnam War, Through Eddie Adams’ Lens”. www.npr.org. 24 March, 2009. Web. 28 July 2014.

“Eddie Adams”. www.FamousPhotographers.com. n.d. Web. 28 July 2014.

Eisinger, Dale. “The 15 Biggest Photoshop Scandals of All Time.” www.complex.com. 16 July 2013. Web. 30 July 2014.

Farah, Vilie. “The Biography of Eddie Adams: Famous War Photographer”. www.brighthub.com. 8 February 2011. Web. 28 July 2014.

Grundberg, Andy. “Eddie Adams, Journalist Who Showed Violence of Vietnam, Dies at 71.” www.NYTimes.com.  20 September 2004. Web. 28 July 2014.

“Hillary Clinton Removed From Situation Room Photo By Der Tzitung, Hasidic Newspaper”. www.huffintgonpost.com. 9 May 2011. Web. 30 July 2014.

Kobré, Kenneth. Photo Journalism The Professionals’ Approach. Burlington: Elsevier, 2008. Print.

Moore, Harold G. We Were Soldiers Once… and Young: Ia Drang – The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam. Presidio Press, 2004. Print.

Newseum.org. “Eddie Adams”. Interview about Pulitzer Prize Photograph – Viet Cong Execution. Bio_Adams_1. Mp3. n.d. Web. 28 July 2014. http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/ws/mp3/bio_adams_1.mp3

“Ongoing Discussion: Media’s Impact on Opinion”. www.aventalearning.com. n.d. Web. 28 July 2014.

“Photo Tampering Throughout History”. www.fourandsix.com. n.d. Web. 30 July 2014. 

“Saigon Execution”. www.cah.utexas.edu. The Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin. n.d. Web. 28 July 2014.

“War Photography”. www.myeclassonline.com. Photo History II, P01. The Art Institute of Pittsburgh – Online Division, n.d. Web. 28 July 2014.

“Who is Eddie Adams?”. The Eddie Adams Workshop. n.d. Web. 28 July 2014.

Zell, Mark. “Saigon Execution photographed by Eddie Adams, 1968: Weekly Discussion #22”. www.photo.net. 29 April 2014, Web. 30 July 2014.

Ironman Raleigh 70.3

Silly Mr. Raleigh! You're bronze, not iron.

Triathlons. I'm not sure whose addiction is worse: my husband's or mine. He loves racing; I adore shooting. So when my husband signed up for Ironman Raleigh 70.3 in 2013 I was beside myself at the thought of being able to get photographs of a race that brings people from 20 different countries together in an effort to test their physical and mental strength. To say that I had a fantastic time shooting last year is a gross understatement. In fact when registration for the 2014 race opened up, I'm not sure who was more excited about my husband's participation again this year: him or me.

Triathlons amaze me for so many reasons. What other sport allows an average athlete to toe the very same starting line with professionals, completing the very same course, on the very same day? For that matter, what sport allows physically challenged athletes to jump in on the action as well? Race morning almost always chokes me up because of this.

When I was in high school I played soccer and basketball. But I never got to be on the same field as Mia Hamm, nor did I ever get to shoot hoops next to Michael Jordan. And for that matter, a person with two prosthetic legs would have had to play in a completely different league than either of us if they wanted to enjoy the sport. But in triathlons, the average athlete who can finish the distance in the time allotted, is in. But this begs the question: who can possibly be "average" when finishing a Half Ironman?

So what did I get to see this year? Plenty! And for much of it, I saw it through misty eyes and a camera lens. Here is a quick breakdown of just a small part of what I got to experience as a bystander this year.

This isn't a view I, personally, get to see very often. I'm more of a night owl who wakes up before sunrise for triathlons.

Meet Mary Beth Ellis. I got to "chat" with her for a few minutes during the expo the day before the event. She is an 8x Ironman Champion since 2011! To say that I was a blubbering fool after realizing who she was would be kind. I even forgot to ask for a selfie!

The gentleman on the right did the entire event (no relay here)! It warms my heart that not only did he get the opportunity to do the same course as the pros, but he got to warm up with them before the race!

I am always encouraged when I see men and women who don't look like your average triathlete accomplish the amazing feat of finishing. I don't think this woman's smile ever left her face. She was beautiful from start to finish!

This was the swim start for my husband's wave. As they entered the water, the announcer informed all bystanders that this group had by-far the least amount of athletes wearing wetsuits. These crazy men were quite proud of that statistic... my husband included!

As a Disabled Veteran of the Army, I am a proud member of Team RWB. Every time I saw somebody "flying the Eagle" (wearing a Team RWB logo on their kit) I shouted to/for them. I even saw three amazing athletes (one of whom is a dear friend of mine) flying the flag as they ran the half marathon to complete the race. 

I seriously doubt the Race Director could have picked a better backdrop for the finish chute. While the photographers with FinisherPix were busy getting images of triathletes crossing the finish line, I was snagging shots with the State Capital in the background.

Care to see more? Check out the rest of my images in my online gallery. And stay tuned for more beautiful moments through the lens of my camera!

Roller Derby!

My daughter has decided to join a roller derby team. My sweet, polite, tutu-wearing, princess-infatuated, angel of a daughter went to a local adult bout and was mesmerized! My girlfriend just so happened to mention that there is a girl's derby team in town and they are always happy to take on any fresh meat new recruits who are willing to work hard. We were at the very next practice.

She. Is. In. Love. She is confused with all of the rules, and she is still working very hard on the technical skills that she needs to be able to play in a bout, but the sun rises and sets based on when the next practice and bout is on the calendar. For now she's on the team, but can only dress out to ride the pine. I love that they don't just throw her to the wolves (being fresh meat and all) and expect her to learn by doing.

Today, the team had a bout against the Gotham Girls from New York City.  I am not quite finished with editing the images from today, but I couldn't wait to share some of my favorite moments. To say that these girls are tough is an understatement! This may not be the derby of the 1930s... it's more intense! The hits are real, the bouts are not choreographed, and the bruises are battle scars to be bragged about. Enjoy!