Chilling Photograph

Today's Wall Street Journal has a lead article called "A Chilling Photograph's Hidden History", in which the author reveals the name of a photographer, and the details of a photograph's history, that reminds us how important photography is in the Middle East today. I recently completed a research project into the Influence of Photography in the Middle East, and I barely scraped the surface. This story adds so much, both visually and documentarily, about how hard it is to be a photographer under conditions of governmental repression. The fact that Jahangir Razmi took photographs at all, is as remarkable as the fact that he made such significant photos, and that he had to keep hidden just who he was.


Unfortunately, you will not be allowed to VIEW this image, unless you were fortunate, or foolish, enough to subscribe to WSJ's online edition. See the link that's provided to the public. I guess this is America's answer to the Islamic/Iranian/absolutist's prohibition against viewing dangerous photos. Unless you are willing to pay your masters in the coinage of the realm (here it's dollars, there and then it was often your life), you are forbidden, and this image's history will STAY hidden. If you want to read more, check out this link for "see related article". What a racket. In fact, this is precisely why I refuse to subscribe to WSJ, though I did give them this one final try. My airline offered me the chance to subscribe for 3 months (at the cost of hundreds of airline "miles"), and I took that opportunity. Now, I see it's just a solicitation for more money, and an enticement for ill-gotten gains. Surely the WSJ can be more availing with "their" news, and less stingy with society's glue. Without the images photographers take, and the stories reporters make, there is no Wall Street Journal. And without viewers like you, and readers like me, there is no WSJ. So - I await the next American revolution, when we realize that education and information belong to all, and that hoarding and hostaging is against our public morals. Shame on you, WSJ.

OK - there's hope here: the author, Joshua Prager, has a little information about the story and the photograph. Is this akin to Razmi hanging on to the contact sheets until it's safe to show them? That is, until WSJ has the decency to reveal the sources of THEIR stories, we'll have to be grateful to individuals like Prager that refuse to shut up, or be shut out...

For posterity's sake, here's a link to Prager's story: A Chilling Photograph