Combat and War Photography - Important Life Lessons Told In Images

For those of us who want a grasp of the reality of wars and combat, you don't need to go out to a war zone to see it. In fact, you could do this from the comfort of your own home. Newspapers and books are full of graphic images of wars, many of which are that detailed that they are almost real.

While many of us can find photography from wars and combats interesting, others aren't so keen due to its explicitly and censorship which is completely understandable but it's been going around for a long time. Since the 1860's to be precise when Mathew Brady's photography team took the very first pictures of war during the American Civil War period.

The History of Photography of Combat and War

As previously mentioned in the last paragraph, the very first pictures ever to be taken during a war was when the American Civil War was in action in the 1860's. What came from the cameras of the photographers shocked the nation as the pictures were very graphic, detailed and showed death and combat which was a big thing back then as most people were using to soppy romantics and the likes.

Despite the nation being shocked from the results of the photographs during the American Civil War period photography of war and combat continued on and still does up to this date. It's since the Second World War that photography of war has become very common. We've all seen at least 1 picture from WWII right? Well there are literally thousands of them, many of which are very disturbing and shocking.

Since photography of war and combat began, there have been so many disturbing images that have been seen by millions. One famous one includes a young Vietnamese girl who is running for her life after being burned badly from a chemical napalm attack during the Vietnam War. By far, some of the worst images that we've seen are from the WWII era with the Nazi concentration camps.

Photographers of combat and war are putting themselves in great danger as they are right in the middle of the war zones. It's not uncommon for the likes of journalists and photographers to be specifically targeted by the enemy lines so when you think about it, this is a much more difficult job than it would be for a trained soldier.

What do Photographers of Combat and War Take Pictures of?

Good question! Photographers of combat and war focus on a wide variety of subjects. Some subjects may include actual pictures from the war zone, the aftermath of it all, death and casualties. Some of the images can be very disturbing and the photographer could get a lot of negative attention from it, however, it's not always the case as we do see the occasional photograph of the likes of an exhausted and worn out soldier.

Photographs which have been taken throughout combats and wars are normally passed / sold on to the likes of newspaper and book authors for the world to see. This is how we get to see some of the most spectacular and even the most gruesome of images!