“The camera photographs what’s there.” — Jack Nicholson
Pictures ain’t what they used to be. Since I was a kid, we’ve gone from grainy black & white to high-tech, scratch-and-sniff, 3-D, HD, IMAX, and more — plus, we’ve got them everywhere: TVs, PCs, Smart-Phones, Smart-Pads, Smart-Watches, and, of course, paper.
The extraordinary volume and mega-mass distribution of these frozen moments tend to dilute the impact of any single snap: Pictures of us. Pictures of them. Pictures of them and us together. Then there’s stuff. (Lots of stuff.) And, of course, cats.
Back in the 1970s, “Video Killed the Radio Star.” There’ve been a lot of media-related fatalities in the world of communication since then. Many milestones have been — or soon will be — swept away by the tsunami of clicks, snaps, pops, and pushes to come.
Before that happens, I’d like to share two from my mental bank account. Both won Pulitzer Prizes.
Each photograph speaks for itself. Both captured history — and were recognized for doing so. I need not add more.
That said, there’s an image (taken from an online CNN video) posted at the top of this commentary, a version of which is below. It’s worth discussing.
The child in the photo is Omran Daqneesh. Here’s part of the write-up from CNN: “He is young — one witness puts him at five years old, as old as the Syrian war itself. But his chubby arms and legs and the way he clings to the man who pulled him from the rubble of his bombed-out home suggest he is younger, maybe still a toddler.”
An accompanying graphic notes that 18,598 civilians have been killed in Aleppo province during the war. That number includes 4,557 children.
Nima Elbagir of CNN describes the video this way: “When you look at Orman’s face, I think it hits you that this bloodied, impassive face, so traumatized that even as he pulls his hand away with his own blood, he didn’t react; he didn’t respond.”
Here’s the punch-line of her piece:
“This is now what it looks like to be lucky as a child in Syria. To be lucky means that you’re pulled out of the rubble after a 45-minute search, alone, in the dark, and you’re pulled out alive.”
Another talking head, referring to this bloody snap-shot of the crisis in Syria, wept as she spoke.
According to CNN, there are 1.5 to 2 million people still living in Aleppo — no word on how many are children. I can’t imagine what it must be like to live in a state of constant war. (I hope I never find out.)
I wonder if there’s anybody — short of God Almighty — wise enough to diffuse the tense and brutally bloody Syrian conflict. In the meantime, perhaps we can help the survivors like young Omran Daqneesh. We should at the very least try . . .
Jim Lamb is a retired journalist living in Florida.
