Internation Photography for the Arts
The Spanish War was a time of many casualties and much bloodshed. The exhibit at ICP (International Center of Photography) captures many of the striking and gory scenes iconic of the war. Pictures ranged from orphaned children playing to soldiers and civilians with dismembered body parts.
Of all, the Falling Soldier is one of the more renown of the photographs. The Falling Soldier by Robert Capa is an action photo showing the death of a soldier. No violence, blood, or gore is exposed; only the falling of a soldier. The beauty and power of the photo is expressed from the frozen man. Although the man is frozen in time and space, it seems to be moving. Although it isn’t the goriest of the photos, it has one of the stronger meanings. The focus of the piece seems to be the mid section of the man; the chest area is the most clearly defined area of the photo.
Another photo, “Air Raid Victims in the Morgue, Valencia” is one of the more shocking and disturbing photos of the war. It capitalizes on the bloodshed caused by the war by showing dead bodies with large gashes and missing body parts. This photo like all the others is in black and white. The picture itself is very disturbing to look at but alerts the audience to the horrors involved in fighting the war. The air strikes bought about calamity for citizens of Valencia. Clinics and hospitals were overfilled with civilians whose lives were already lost. This photo in particular captures the true essence of how the people felt during this time. Witnessing these corpse are to witness death and to witness a call to end the war.
Another war photograph is the “Burning Truck, Battle Brunete”. The focus in this photo is the flame on burning on the truck. The rest of the picture seems to be grayscale and yet the flame is strikingly different from the rest. The colors alone violate the norm of the photo. While the rest of the photo is grayscale, the fire is a very bright color as it is the only thing alive in the photo. The smoke coming from the flames are a very dark color as through it were representing death. The photo is very pixilated due to age and not because it was the photographer’s desire for a granulated picture.
A picture speaks a thousand words. Each picture seen has its own meaning, its own strengths, and of course its own meanings. The photos at the Spanish Civil War exhibit all depict and convey the horrors of the war. Some with a very gory subject and others shows sadness. Several years after the battle, the public can still view the terror and the emotion of both citizens and soldiers of the war.