Images can affect each person in a different way. Each image a person sees can do either good or bad for that specific person. That is the point of photography, to induce a reaction that people can either relate too, or shy away from. This is the thought process used by advertisers advertising against a certain product. The Canadians used horrible photographs of organs to try and prevent people from smoking and the author in the essay is a little skeptical.
In the essay “Regarding the Pain of Others” by Susan Sontag in the book Other Words, a section of the essay talks about a smoking problem in Canada. On each package of cigarettes was a warning that talked about the horrible side effects of cigarettes. They believed that this tactic wasn’t working so they decided to make things worse. Many people would agree that an image of something horrific is much more powerful than the description of something horrific. Not only is it more powerful, but it is much more likely to be seen by someone because images can catch ones eye much better than words can. They decided to change it. “Canada, where it had been estimated that smoking kills 45,000 per year, decided to supplement the warning printed on every pack of cigarettes with a shock-photograph --- of cancerous lungs, or a stroke-clotted brain, or a damaged heart, or a bloody mouth in acute periodontal distress.”These images were very gross and disgusting. Susan Sontag believes that over time these images can lose their effect on the people they are intended to effect. I however do not believe that that is the case.
While it is true that these types of pictures have an effect on everyone that is seeing them for the first time, this effect can linger even if the person doesn’t think it will. Sontag talks about how these pictures don’t always work, that there effect can be decreased over time. “But do people want to be horrified? Probably not.” Many people by themselves will see these images on the cigarette packs and a few of them will quit smoking because of it. Many of them will not quit and continue to smoke by themselves and in front of their friends. Now while these people are in front of their friends smoking, they are bound to pull out the pack in front of them. And from there at least one of the friends is going to see that image and point it out. If they are not a smoker themselves they are not going to be very conservative in their opinion of an image like that. An image like that sparks not only feelings of disgust, but questions on whether or not smoking is worth it. From there the other people would notice the pictures and would also be disgusted with smoking. They would then place pier pressure on the smoker and reactivate the original feeling seen by the picture in the first place. The pier pressure in itself could eventually make the smoker change his mind. All these points come down to the person’s mindset, and although peer pressure can effect it, it’s not everything.
Although the images that would be shown on these packs are very horrific and very much possible, they are only the worst case scenario. The Canadian Government intended to put the most powerful images on these cigarettes and those happened to be the worst case scenario. The worst case scenario is most certainly not the majority and therefore you could call these photographs staged. Not staged in the sense that they are not real, but staged in the sense that they are only showing you the worst and not the usual or average result of smoking. The same could be said about war photographs. Many of the photographs taken in War were photos that were staged to make the battles look more bloody, to rally the country behind the cause and the reasons why this war was taking place. “Not surprisingly many of the canonical images of early war photography turn out to have been staged, or to have their subjects tampered with.” Specifically there are two photos both taken by Roger Fenton, a photographer a British war photographer considered one of the first of his kind, of the Valley of the Shadow of Death. These photos are of the same road, but one picture has cannonballs in the road and the other one has the cannonballs in a ditch on the side of the road. Susan Sontag believes that in the second photo Fenton oversaw the moving of the cannonballs from the ditch on the side, to being scattered across the road. There is obviously no evidence that this happened but she proposes an interesting idea regarding staged photos. These photos can paint a picture that is so much stronger than what actually happened in that situation. For that reason is why they are so controversial. There are people on both sides of the issue, whether they are good in trying to help rally people behind a cause, or that they are not true so they ruin an entire point. The fact of the matter is, many photos taken during wars were staged and photographers wanted the images of the war to be more powerful than what they were seeing on many occasions.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/25/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg-part-one/
Roger Fenton was a very interesting man. He was born in Crimble Hall, Heap, Bury, Lancashire, on March 28, 1819 to a very rich family. He graduated from University College London with a “first class” Bachelor of Arts degree. He went to Paris to learn the waxed paper calotype process, most likely from his inventor and soon after that his photos were being displayed all over England. Then in 1855 he went to take photos of the Crimean War on assignment. This war was fought between the allied forces of the French, British and Ottoman Empire, along with a few other smaller sections, versus the Russians. The war was fought from October of 1853 to February of 1856 and ended in an Allied victory. Fenton returned from the war with over 350 negatives which later turned into an exhibition of 312 prints. He was sent as the first official war photographer by the insistence of Prince Albert to try and turn the British people’s opinion of an unpopular war and counteract the antiwar reporting in The Times. That right there is evidence to why many of the photos taken by him during the war could have been staged. If he is trying to turn the tide of the war in the minds of the British people, then why wouldn’t it make sense to try and take a photo of the most powerful image as possible?
It is also very clear to many people which photograph was taken first and which was taken second and therefore the staged one. One of the photos has all of the cannonballs in a ditch on the side of the road and none of them in the road at all. This is believed to be taken first as he first arrived on the sight. Many of the cannonballs fell into the dirt because of gravity and travel along the road. The second photo has cannonballs all over the road that were in the ditch in the first one. Now from there it gets tricky. Ulrich Keller the author of “The Ultimate Spectacle: A Visual History of the Crimean War” argues that the photo with the cannonballs in the road has to have been taken second. He believes that there is no psychological argument as to why Fenton would move the cannonballs that were already on the road because that is a great scene. He most likely wanted to increase the value of the image by adding the cannonballs to the road to make the quantity look bigger and show that the Russians were trying to kill many British soldiers. From there I do believe that these staged photos were very useful and powerful in displaying the images that were needed to help the cause in England.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsakNxs3pbLq3pdWgPsw36xzHcNfsMmWkiycyFbFWdOfkT9grwO5U6mq3Lj0CPe7vjuHP_b67erIg1qh16CwgnkWa-pxGZ68Xw_PHGm-djMPAp6uhzhpfi799GpGVbIpfi8J9ip9oEcCI/s1600/roger+fenton+4.jpg
Another photo taken by Roger during the war was a very gruesome picture of hillside that was attacked. In the photo there is at least one dead soldier who has not had a good time by the look of this. This photo probably was not staged because usually staged photos do not include dead bodies for obvious reasons. The reason why this photo is very powerful is obviously because of not just the dead soldier but also the destroyed landscape that he is in. This photo is in the special case of photos that wouldn’t need to be staged. The image doesn’t need any enhancing to be more powerful or have a stronger impact on people. However this photo is in the minority and most war photos of this time are not as powerful, because of the equipment and its limitations during that time. All three of these images are tied to Sontag’s essay in one simple way. They present powerful images than cannot dissipate in impact over time. None of these images will lose their effect on people as they see them more often.
The combination of powerful images and staged photos is a hard balance to create. The fact that powerful images catch the eye of people that are seeing them makes it a photographer want to go to great lengths so that people will see their work and enjoy their work. Some of those great lengths mean that they have to stage the photo and if it’s to prove a point then I agree with it.

Posted by Shaz at 2:33 PM