These shots capture the harshness of human conflict and how we (human beings) change in the face of it. Thank you.
I disagree with people saying these are good shots. In the collection another user posted ( http://www.kainoalittle.com/mosul ) there are better shots technically and artistically. Yet that the photographer chose these shots for the article speak tons. These aren't photographs to make you feel better, these are photographs to make you understand (even a tiny bit) what real war looks like and it is ugly.
I have to (respectfully) disagree. These pictures are good, but imo they are still arguably war porn- lots of concrete rubble and men in the heat of battle (videogame stuff essentially). They don't really capture the true consequences or horrors of war. Pictures like the Napalm girl in Vietnam or more recently the picture of the drowned refugee boy on the beach[1] and that picture of that Syrian boy covered in blood and dust[2] . Those pictures are painful to look at (but not too graphic to be nonpunishable) but still tug at the heartstrings and inspire people to action or make them reconsider their actions.
I always found disturbing the way a mixing "art" with this kind of subject. It's giving a much more positive feedback, as in "it looks cool" or the feeling of emotions you get in a movie (because it doesn't look real).
Let's not forget war is freaking horrible and there is nothing worth idealizing one way or another about it. That's my personal belief, but I don't think art has its place here. Any form of heroic spectacle are truly misleading about what the people and soldiers truly endure.
"But the soldiers had fed me and given me a seat in their Humvees, and the refugees had tolerated my presence on some of the worst days of their lives. They very rightly expected that I would tell their story."
You could have explained a little about the death of newspapers and other media outlets, and how much existing footage/photography there is of conflict in Iraq (to say nothing of Afghanistan, Syria etc). They should have been under no illusions as to the likelihood of any particular photographer getting their work paid for and published. It's like the Simpsons joke about space missions. The first guy landed on the moon and it's the story of the century. The 12th lunar mission though? Meh - what else is on. Trying to get a western, especially an American, audience excited about another batch of photographs about fighting in the Middle East seems like something of a tall order. Even outside of the news photography has died a death. Anyone can take an adequate photograph nowadays with cheap, simple equipment so few people are willing to pay a professional.
"death of newspapers and other media outlets" decreases supply of such images - armchair bloggers have less means, infrastructure and connections to do it.
These are great pictures, and makes me realize that while we hear a lot (though not enough) about these conflicts around the world, its usually just accompanied by a photo or two or a few seconds of video capturing a firefight or an explosion. But such things are cliche at this point and don't hit home. Seeing real soldiers taking a break between firefights, and real families fleeing their homes with their children and a few belongings really makes the reality of the situation much more graspable. I think we need to see a lot more of these candid photos (and video too) of the real people whose lives are being devastated by these conflicts.
I'd never heard of the Free Burma Rangers before, and these photos helped me learn. I guess that means the author has succeeded in his admirable mission to tell others' stories.
> If you’d like to support my work, you can purchase prints of my photos. You can also learn about and support the world of the Free Burma Rangers here.
Good shots Kainoa, I really wish I could read the story that goes with them.
I can see it being hard as a news photographer of any sort these days, as papers are going through a very hard transition that may see them completely vanish at the other side of it.
Have you considered finding some writers on Medium? Their new concept is to be the platform without the paper, readers select writers more organically and writers get paid more directly, photographers don't fit directly into this model yet but you could at least sell to writers there. Maybe medium will come up with a way to have multiple contributors to articles that photographers could be a part of too.
To clarify with the Medium thing, I guess what I mean is when you sell to papers you don't consider it your job to find the writers that your photos go with, but maybe now that is part of the job.
Apologies for the confusion, this isn't by me -- I was merely sharing the page and wasn't sure what else to title it than what it had originally. I just posted a note to that effect.
It's weird because I've read several times over that violence in the world is decreasing on average, so it would seem the middle is the last violent place. Still quite violent...
you see all those weird straight lines when you look at the political boundaries on a map of the middle east? those are lines drawn by former colonial masters. they look inorganic because they aren't natural.
this alone is a seed of conflict: unnatural borders that don't reflect a social reality. throw in prized resources to compete over, and it's incredibly fertile ground for violence.
now, look where else you can see these national border geometries for a glimpse into the future...
Photography is a tough job. It's wracked with internal politics, people playing favourites and in general just a lot of work. Honestly, it's easier to get $250k in VC funding than to sell your first break out photo essay (even if it's brilliant). I'm not an actor, nor a novelist, but I imagine it's a lot like trying to get your first big role or your novel to even get read by an editor. It's a painful grind on a day to day endless cycle of rejection.
Let's not even start with the fact that news staff jobs are basically non-existent, so most of these photographers are going into war zones with no backup support, no insurance provided for them, and it's all done on spec, so it's literally laying their life on the line with, if you're lucky, $3k for two weeks worth of getting shot it. We could then get into the mental health aspect of working for very little, very hard, while also facing the very real prospect of death every day (remember, probably no insurance for therapy or zoloft back stateside).
This is just for war photographers. For your day-to-day working photojournalist it's actually worse for pay and you have to be on call 24/7 or else they'll move on to the next guy/girl and you're out of rotation. Good luck going on holiday.
I am a photo editor at a major publication that's been around for more than 100 years, and I have been responsible for sending photographers to Iraq, Syria and other conflict zones over the past seven years.
The short answer is that we do not publish unsolicited imagery from war zones, especially imagery from a completely unknown photographer randomly approaching us via email. In the same way we wouldn't publish a quote from a random citizen claiming to have interviewed Donald Trump, we do due diligence to learn the context of unsolicited images.
Lots of people make the assumption that images are unbiased and truthful representations of an objective reality, and I see many comments here supporting Kai for his "distinct" perspective. I encourage you to read Errol Morris' book "Believing is Seeing", where he discusses the importance of context as related to truth in photography.
Furthermore, especially in a conflict like Iraq or Syria, we do not want to encourage random photo cowboys to show up without the resources that our organizations offer true professionals on assignment in these stories. As journalism got particularly crunched in the early 2000s, we tried this for a brief period and it resulted in many young photographers heading to war zone s to "make a name" for themselves. They were killed and we were blamed for encouraging them.
Lastly, my professional opinion is that Kai's work is amateur. It's what we see from young photographers, relying way too much on aesthetic and situation to try and make an abstract point. Study the work of James Nachtwey, the late Chris Hondros, Don McCullin, even Robert Capa, and you will immediately see (and more importantly, FEEL) the difference.
I am happy to share more if there is interest in starting a dialogue.
Lots of supply and little demand - doing photography is one thing but selling photography is one tough job.
Journalistic photography is slowly moving away from being a profession towards an expensive hobby where you may sell some pictures sometimes, but not enough to earn a living or even cover the hardware.
I'd guess that there is fatigue or disinterest in the West at continuing to hear/see this sort of story. It doesn't sell so editors run with whatever local non-drama captivates people.
At least it looks like this ploy by the photographer has worked - search his name and loads of online media have published something similar to this link. The idea that people don't care and the media won't pay has made it a story. Good on him for outside the box thinking.
Perhaps these photos do not 'fit the current narrative' or go against the editorial policy of the news outlets.
Ownership of traditional mainstream media is cloistered in few hands and those hands have agendas for editorial policy and friends in high places.
Chomsky's Manufacturing consent well demonstrates how this is achieved bottom up: i.e. one isn't so much told what to think but hired because of ones views and worldview.
Or there is an active interest in resisting on-the-ground journalism about this conflict. Photos of soldiers killed or wounded are still subject to restriction.
Note: Just to clarify in case anyone misinterprets, these are not my photos! I merely copied the title from the page. If there's a better way to title pages like these, please let me know, since I was confused as to what title I should put while avoiding it being misleading.
It'd probably work to prefix the name of the author before the title, so something like "Kainoa Little: No One Would Buy My Photos, So Here They Are For Free: Mosul 2017".
What else should we talk about in this thread? About how sad it is that nobody wanted to buy her photos, or about how great it is that she's giving them away?
Wildly off topic: this site redirected my mobile chrome to some advertisement with a screen blocking scammy alert and closed all other tabs. What the hell?
[+] [-] aphextron|8 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW_F2ntQOcQ
[+] [-] AndrewKemendo|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nerdponx|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] the_cat_kittles|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pinaceae|8 years ago|reply
Will be interesting to see if long term certain psychic diseases (bi-polar, depression, etc.) get less prevalent on the Arabic peninsula.
[+] [-] andmarios|8 years ago|reply
I disagree with people saying these are good shots. In the collection another user posted ( http://www.kainoalittle.com/mosul ) there are better shots technically and artistically. Yet that the photographer chose these shots for the article speak tons. These aren't photographs to make you feel better, these are photographs to make you understand (even a tiny bit) what real war looks like and it is ugly.
[+] [-] _nedR|8 years ago|reply
[1] ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Alan_Kurdi)
[2](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/18/boy-in-the-amb...)
[+] [-] ux|8 years ago|reply
Let's not forget war is freaking horrible and there is nothing worth idealizing one way or another about it. That's my personal belief, but I don't think art has its place here. Any form of heroic spectacle are truly misleading about what the people and soldiers truly endure.
[+] [-] canada_dry|8 years ago|reply
It really hurts seeing little kids caught in this crap.
[+] [-] superflyguy|8 years ago|reply
You could have explained a little about the death of newspapers and other media outlets, and how much existing footage/photography there is of conflict in Iraq (to say nothing of Afghanistan, Syria etc). They should have been under no illusions as to the likelihood of any particular photographer getting their work paid for and published. It's like the Simpsons joke about space missions. The first guy landed on the moon and it's the story of the century. The 12th lunar mission though? Meh - what else is on. Trying to get a western, especially an American, audience excited about another batch of photographs about fighting in the Middle East seems like something of a tall order. Even outside of the news photography has died a death. Anyone can take an adequate photograph nowadays with cheap, simple equipment so few people are willing to pay a professional.
[+] [-] thinkloop|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] skywhopper|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dsego|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] notacoward|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rmason|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] e40|8 years ago|reply
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/
I visit them once a week and go through the photos. Quite amazing.
[+] [-] arcticbull|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] morsch|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Doches|8 years ago|reply
> If you’d like to support my work, you can purchase prints of my photos. You can also learn about and support the world of the Free Burma Rangers here.
http://www.kainoalittle.com/prints/
[+] [-] radicalbyte|8 years ago|reply
I don't think that we're the only ones here who want to send him some cash.
[+] [-] electic|8 years ago|reply
I would gladly donate. Also, would be neat if they also took Bitcoin and Ethereum as a donation option.
[+] [-] radicalbyte|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] tomxor|8 years ago|reply
I can see it being hard as a news photographer of any sort these days, as papers are going through a very hard transition that may see them completely vanish at the other side of it.
Have you considered finding some writers on Medium? Their new concept is to be the platform without the paper, readers select writers more organically and writers get paid more directly, photographers don't fit directly into this model yet but you could at least sell to writers there. Maybe medium will come up with a way to have multiple contributors to articles that photographers could be a part of too.
[+] [-] tomxor|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wfunction|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] LeoNatan25|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thekid314|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jokoon|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nyolfen|8 years ago|reply
this alone is a seed of conflict: unnatural borders that don't reflect a social reality. throw in prized resources to compete over, and it's incredibly fertile ground for violence.
now, look where else you can see these national border geometries for a glimpse into the future...
[+] [-] tomxor|8 years ago|reply
http://www.kainoalittle.com/mosul
[+] [-] anonu|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] HearMeRoar|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cguess|8 years ago|reply
Let's not even start with the fact that news staff jobs are basically non-existent, so most of these photographers are going into war zones with no backup support, no insurance provided for them, and it's all done on spec, so it's literally laying their life on the line with, if you're lucky, $3k for two weeks worth of getting shot it. We could then get into the mental health aspect of working for very little, very hard, while also facing the very real prospect of death every day (remember, probably no insurance for therapy or zoloft back stateside).
This is just for war photographers. For your day-to-day working photojournalist it's actually worse for pay and you have to be on call 24/7 or else they'll move on to the next guy/girl and you're out of rotation. Good luck going on holiday.
[+] [-] vwcx|8 years ago|reply
The short answer is that we do not publish unsolicited imagery from war zones, especially imagery from a completely unknown photographer randomly approaching us via email. In the same way we wouldn't publish a quote from a random citizen claiming to have interviewed Donald Trump, we do due diligence to learn the context of unsolicited images.
Lots of people make the assumption that images are unbiased and truthful representations of an objective reality, and I see many comments here supporting Kai for his "distinct" perspective. I encourage you to read Errol Morris' book "Believing is Seeing", where he discusses the importance of context as related to truth in photography.
Furthermore, especially in a conflict like Iraq or Syria, we do not want to encourage random photo cowboys to show up without the resources that our organizations offer true professionals on assignment in these stories. As journalism got particularly crunched in the early 2000s, we tried this for a brief period and it resulted in many young photographers heading to war zone s to "make a name" for themselves. They were killed and we were blamed for encouraging them.
Lastly, my professional opinion is that Kai's work is amateur. It's what we see from young photographers, relying way too much on aesthetic and situation to try and make an abstract point. Study the work of James Nachtwey, the late Chris Hondros, Don McCullin, even Robert Capa, and you will immediately see (and more importantly, FEEL) the difference.
I am happy to share more if there is interest in starting a dialogue.
[+] [-] probably_wrong|8 years ago|reply
Maybe these pictures go against the prevailing vision the media wants to disseminate.
[+] [-] PeterisP|8 years ago|reply
Journalistic photography is slowly moving away from being a profession towards an expensive hobby where you may sell some pictures sometimes, but not enough to earn a living or even cover the hardware.
[+] [-] prawn|8 years ago|reply
At least it looks like this ploy by the photographer has worked - search his name and loads of online media have published something similar to this link. The idea that people don't care and the media won't pay has made it a story. Good on him for outside the box thinking.
[+] [-] deepnet|8 years ago|reply
Ownership of traditional mainstream media is cloistered in few hands and those hands have agendas for editorial policy and friends in high places.
Chomsky's Manufacturing consent well demonstrates how this is achieved bottom up: i.e. one isn't so much told what to think but hired because of ones views and worldview.
[+] [-] jawbone3|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] omegaworks|8 years ago|reply
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/world/americas/27iht-photo...
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] NicoJuicy|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wfunction|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Denvercoder9|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hajderr|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mrkrab|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zdkl|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jbg_|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] onetokeoverthe|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] LeifCarrotson|8 years ago|reply
Try the author's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/isawgold/ or personal website: http://www.kainoalittle.com/mosul if the Petapixel link is not loading for you.