I find Richard Whelan article to be convincing, he came across many people to find a more accurate conclusion for Robert Capa’s image “The Falling Soldier.” Everyone he came across with gave a different point of view, like Gallaguer who assures that the photograph was staged. Gallagguer says that he shared a room with Capa and witnessed how Capa went out with a group of soldiers to stage the image. However, there was never evidence that could prove it. Then, Franks chief homicide detective of the Memphis Police Department analyzes the image and finds that the fingers from the left hand are curled toward the hand. That means his muscles went limp and the body was already dead when the picture was taken. It’s hard to tell whether was staged or not, I feel the arguments suggesting it was not staged are more convincing than the ones saying it was. I think whether it was or not staged does not really matter, the point of the image is to bring reality of the war to the people. All this image is showing is a man dying at war and people are aware that hundreds of soldiers die at war! What is different is that people don’t feel empathy for them since they can’t witness the actual war. Images like the “The Falling Soldier” or the “The Valley of the Shadow of Death” by Fenton both images of war times that whether staged or not bring reality of the war to the people.
Homework #4
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