Yesterday Kelly, Hallie and I went down to see the Pulitzer Photograph exhibit at N.C. State, which was fortunately extended through December 28th. I knew we’d see great photographs: you can’t top the Pulitzer Prize in journalism. What I wasn’t prepared for was the morbid quality in the photos.
So many shots were of people dead, or dying, or carnage of some sort or another. Many photos showed scenes out of nightmares; things you’d never, ever want to witness in your lifetime. It didn’t take long for me to wish we hadn’t brought Hallie along with us.
How do you explain a world like this to your child? She’ll soon be old enough to start asking those kinds of questions. And there are no good answers as to why we kill each other. Who can explain it to anybody? It’s insane.
They weren’t all pictures of tragedies. Baby Jessica was there, being rescued from the well. Boris Yeltzin kicks up his heels in one. Kennedy and Ike take a stroll at Camp David. A baby is born to beaming parents in another. Still plenty of good in the world.
The exhibit left an impression on me, that’s for sure. I am reminded of how I felt when I visited the atomic bomb museum in Nagasaki, seeing horrid photos of children who were just exposed to the atomic bomb, the ultimate, indescriminating tool of man’s hatred for another. You can’t help but put yourself in those kids’ shoes, watching wide-eyed as your whole world is instantly obliterated in a senseless act of destruction.
So many people who clamor for war never witness the costs. They never see the bloodshed. The look on a person’s face as their life drains away from them. The shattered cities. The human toll. The orphaned kids. The leftover munitions which will continue to kill indescriminately year upon year.
Yes, the photographs are harsh, but they tell an important story. This is our world, presented in black and white. It is what we make it.