Staged war photos

[Spitfire]

"The famous kiss" thread and the remarks about the shot being staged, made me think. How many famous warphotos were actually staged?
And if it matters or not?

Clearly a staged propagand shot - staged in order to show something that isn't true - is wrong. No matter which side you are on.
But there is this grey zone where - let's say a photographer sees something happen, but hasn't got his camara ready.
If he then asks som soldiers to do it again - is that staging and not documentary?
We all know about Iwo Jima and the flag.
I also truely believe that the famous kiss happened, and then the photographer asked them to do it again...or asked some others to kiss.
How many famous "scramble" photos in Battle of Britain, were not staged.
Simply because the photographers were not on the spot when it happened.
But the pilots did it several times a day. So - was it true. Was it staged?

It seems like all the most known, iconic photos - except Robert Capras D-day shots were staged.
(The same Robert Capra, wo were accused for staging his famous "The death of a republican soldier" form the spanish civil war.)

How do you feel about staging the war?

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

You mean like this famous one?

 

[Story]

Or the assorted 'desantniki' tank-rider photos

from
www.redarmyonline.org

 

[Spitfire]

I will admit that the top one is almost too heroic for words!

But I also remember a picture from WWII North Africa with some british soldiers standing besides a burnt out tank or truck looking down on some "dead Afrikakorps Soldiers" as the newspapers said.
Looking closely on the photo, you see, that the germans are wearing british boots, equipment and uniforms, only the helmet is german.
Clearly the photographer had asked some tommies to play dead germans in order to get a dramatic picture for the homefront.

 

[MrBern]

Press photographers get fired for staging photos now.


Didnt Matthew Brady rearrange bodies at the battlesites to accomodate his compositions.

Was Doisneau's photo used for a photo essay of LIFE, or was it a spread for Vogue?
-b

 

[The Wingnut]

MacArthur's landing in the Phillipines was 're-enacted' a few days later because the first landing didn't have any press coverage, nor was it initially planned to wade ashore from a Higgins landing craft. Circumstances ended up putting Macartur in a Higgins and wading distance from the water's edge the first time.

The Iwo Jima flag raising was done twice, the first time without a photographer. The second time was to raise a larger flag, and the photographer came along to photograph it. This isn't quite 'staging', but it's notable.

 

[Mojito]

Frank Hurley was one of the greatest photographers Australia ever produced. His work on both Mawson and Shackleton expeditions would be familiar to many Antarctic afficiandoes - many of his images of both the Antarctic and WWI remain iconographic. He had a fictional screen incarnation in Branagh's Shackleton miniseries.

What is now widely recognised, however, is that many of his images were either staged or doctored, sometimes using a clever montage technique. They're still powerful images, but I think it is necessary to recognise that sometimes there is more an element of 'art' and less of literal historical documentation. A recent documentary on his work, as well as exhibitions and books, have noted this.

 

[MrBern]

I love that Hurley dove into the icey waters to reclaim some plates. Then later shackleton sat with him & edited his images. Shacklton breaking the rejected plates so Hurley wouldnt again risk his life to recover them.
And the images are beautiful

 

[Smithy]

Spitfire, the vast majority of the BoB scramble photos that you see were staged for official visits by press photographers to squadrons that were either released or (very rarely) available. A squadron at readiness and therefore one likely to be actually scrambled were not exactly going to be given visitors by the Air Ministry at the height of the Battle. Also most of the photographs taken at these visits were on lull days and quite often at "quiet" RAF stations, and not uncommonly, not even in 11 Group Sector.

A dead giveaway in most of these pics are the smiles on the faces of the "scrambling" pilots!

 

[Cherriexo]

Press photographers get fired for staging photos now.


Didnt Matthew Brady rearrange bodies at the battlesites to accomodate his compositions.

-b

Yeah he did,and he actually didnt take most of them either.He has "assistants" take them,and then he got credit.

But they were and are memorable glimpses into one of America's bloodiest wars on our soil.

 

[Feng_Li]

The famous photo of the Soviet flag being raised over the Reichstag falls into this category.

 

[Phil]

There's been some in the Iraq war too. The Associated Press was cited with several staged photos. I'll see if I can find the article.

 

[dhermann1]

Iwo Jima

Actually, the first flag raising was also captured on film. It just wasn't as dramatic a shot. The first raising was photographed by Leatherneck photographer Lou Lowrey. If you don't compare the shots with the famous Joe Rosenthal shot, they're pretty damned dramatic, too. You can tell that they're doing this while the bullets are whizzing past their heads. They have that grim saucer eyed combat look on their faces.

 

[MrBern]

The famous photo of the Soviet flag being raised over the Reichstag falls into this category.

WHats the full story behind that one? HAdnt the photog been eager to get an "iwoJima' type shot, so he had a flag made? So when th building was taken, he was prepped w/ a flag at the ready....

I'm pretty sure it was a 35mm camera

 

[dhermann1]

Berlin

I don't know about the photographer, but supposedly the Soviet army were told that the first troops to get a flag flying from the Reichstag would get some sort of reward. They had the flag up several hours before the building was actually secured, much like Iwo. The flag raising on Surabachi was days before the island was anything like secured.

 

[Atticus Finch]

Hi Folks,

You don't really have to go back too far in history to find staged war photos and embellished war stories. Remember Jessica Lynch?

Atticus

 

[anselmo1]

I always wondered if General Franco and his Nationalist Army were paid by General Motors to utilize Chevy trucks in this staged picture during the Spanish Civil War?