Photography of death has always been a big deal in America. From dead solders in Vietnam to 9/11 American have always been torn from morality and freedom of speech. In Nora Ephron’s writing, A Boston Photographs, Ephron gives a detailed background on behind the photographs origin, the following events and multiple opinions ensued after the publication of The Boston Photographs including her own, and how photojournalism can be more impactful than journalism itself. In A Boston Photograph Ephron starts out by giving a background on the photos and how the photos were capture and explains how the photographer wasn’t trying to capture shocking photographs but was instead was taking pictures of the rescue. She gives a generous amount of facts about the expert photojournalist that took the horrific pictures of the woman and child falling from the fire escape during their attempted rescue. The journalist began snapping pictures with his motor driven camera; he would have never thought that this woman was falling to her death. Rather great rescue pictures. As the journalist realized she was kept falling, he turned away as she hit the ground. There were three riveting pictures that the photojournalist had taken that were published. The first one was of a woman, a child and a fireman on a fire escape. The second picture, showed the fire escape slipping off the building, the women was holding on to the fireman for her life as the child was on the edge of the fallen fire escape. And the third photo was the women and child falling in midair. These pictures were recognized as “The sensational photos of the rescue attempt that failed.” These pictures impacted many, and showed the event of one falling to their death.
Then she goes on in detail describing the backlash of the public and how most of the public’s reactions were negative by explaining all the massive pileup of negative letters sent to the newspapers and their employees that were showing the picture.
After that she focused on the other side and how many writers went to defend themselves during this time by using surveys, writing explanations, and how the photos showed the truth of what happened instead of trying to water it down.
She showed great poise showing why one side had the right to be angry and why the other thought it was the right thing to do. She also made good point of her own opinion and why she thought it was right and the deeper understanding why people were so appalled by these photos. The reaction of multiple sources was another tool she used to get her point across. She first used the opinion of the opposing public, using examples off of the letter to the editor section and how many believed it was an invasion of one privacy during their final moments in life and how the matter of the woman falling to her death should have been taken with more respect by not publishing them for the world to see. Other thought it was a ploy for the writers and editors to get more attention and business for their newspaper and themselves. The style of it was to focus more on the more extreme and less rational comments that seemed over reactive and comedic at times to help move the reader into a more neutral mindset if not there already.
She also showed the views of the writers and editors and how they didn’t even question the photos, instead wondered how to use them in the most productive way for the reader. Along with that, she focused on Washington Post’s former managing editor Charles Seib and his opinion on the integrity of an editor and how the role of the job has to act more on printing news instead on how people will react.
She finished the essay off with her opinion and how she thought that the photos captured more readers and pushed a better point across than any words can.
Ephron states that the job of a photojournalist is to expose the terrifying story in the same way a journalist would. However the photojournalist uses pictures to tell the story, opposed to a journalist who uses just words.
Overall you can see how she manipulates the words effectively so to not obviously reject the opposing view but also sway the reader away from it enough to let them see her point which is a very effective way to capture the reader and sway their opinion without seeming pushy or offending them in the process. Throughout The Boston Photographs, Ephron is able to give an accurate representation of the background behind the photos and ensuing events and reactions that succeeded it. Despite this she is able to display a bias view towards the end trying to sway the readers opinion to at least accept why she and so many other newspapers published the Boston Photographs and the greater impact it had on the viewer. From reporters on screen, photographs of the events, and other news outlets; shocking and controversial images have been increasingly prevalent in the modern era of journalism in America and around the globe. With such a barrage of images and sources it has become the responsibility of the press to deliver the news in the same role as Charles Seib described to, according to Ephron’s essay. We must ask ourselves: does this image serve a purpose larger than its own existence? Why does this shock me? Does this make me think? While we must never ignore shocking imagery just for the sake of avoiding the discomfort of being confronted with life nor should we consume so widely that we become callused to their true purpose: to turn the mirror of suffering back on us, and to force us to question how we fit into the world as a whole.