In his scholarly article,“Soldier photography: visualizing the war in Iraq,” author Liam Kennedy makes a strong claim about the functions of soldier photography. Kennedy uses his own opinions as well as primary source evidence, like blogs and online diaries, to support his thesis. His thesis is stated at the end of the introduction when he says he “will consider the implications of the opening real-time windows on the American soldier at war.” (Kennedy 819).
Kennedy’s claims that “the most common functions of the imagery are to communicate with family members and friends in the United States and to provide alternate imagery that challenges viewers to see the ‘real war’.” (Kennedy 819). Kennedy believes that immediate communication with the outside world is a major benefit of soldier imagery. He backs up this point with the primary source of Specialist Kevin Thompson’s blog. When speaking of his blog, Thompson says, “’it is a place family and friends can go see us, and they can and do post comments.’”(Kennedy 820). This is very useful and reliable evidence because it comes directly from someone at war who was using his photography to communicate with his family. Kennedy offers the voice of Captain Daniel Bout to support his claim that the imagery shows people the “real war” (Kennedy 819), when he includes Bout’s words, “‘Anytime I think a story gets personalized… I think people can see the emotion behind the cold hard facts.’” (Kennedy 820). The raw and emotional pictures that so many soldiers share, express the reality of the war without the romanticism, hype, and alteration from many news and external journalist sources. Bout again emphasizes this in saying, “‘For people to really understand our day-to-day experience here, they need more than the highlights reel. They need to see the world through our eyes” (Kennedy 821). The photographs that soldiers publish help connect American citizens to the soldiers, and give them a clear perspective of the realities of what the soldiers are experiencing in Iraq. Kennedy uses two first hand witnesses to help prove his claim is credible.
While Kennedy supports his initial claim very well, he fails to develop other points, and is clearly a bit biased. By focusing on the benefits of soldier photographs, Kennedy has made it very clear throughout his article that he is in support of them. His bias however disables him from being able to give a counter argument, and build on the negative effects of soldier photography. Kennedy mentions that “photographic imagery has caused the most unease within the military” (Kennedy 822), but he fails to give any validity to that claim, and doesn’t explain how this can be negative. He instead quickly moves on to another example of a photoblog by a doctor. A counter argument to Kennedy could be that the rawness of soldier photography could be too graphic and violent to be posted on open internet sites, and in the eyes of a viewer who is not mature enough for such images, these photographs could be very distrubing and even emotionally harmful.
In conclusion, Kennedy makes some very appopriate and well supported claims. With less bias, and a further exploration of counter arguments, this article could’ve been exceptional.
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