lizziec | Just. Wow.

After the 7th July attacks on London there was an argument in one of my IRC channels that went thusly:

[bob] i was tempted to shoot up there and see if there would be any good photo opportunities but i don't think there will be
[kate] you're a sick man
[bob] sick why?
[joebloggs] bob: I was sad at missing a chance to get photos.
[kate] it's like all those people who were having their photos taken next to the whole in the ground where the WTC centre used to be
[kate] there's something horribly macabre about that
[bob] makes good photos
[kate] I can't even begin to explain why that's wrong on so many levels.
[bob] if you can't explain then it can't be that wrong :)
[kate] I think it's a bit creepy because it's all a little too soon after the event and there are people in Tavistock Sq still picking up body parts!
[bob] i'm sure plenty of people took photos at the time
[crysanth] the photos that people think are wrong at the time are the ones that are used to remember in the future...
* esme nods at crysanth
[bob] indeedily doodily
[kate] bob: here we go - feed your macavre photo desire: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/4660563.stm
[bob] kate: if there were no photos and no records of it, there'd be coverup claims
[kate] eh? I don't get that one
[bob] doh, someone just changed the wikipedia entry to read "Queen Elizabeth II issued an official statement, saying she was "deeply delighted" and had "nothing but admiration for the terrorists who planned the attack"."
[bob] doh
[bob] wikipedia also says the 1998 Omagh bombing killed 29 pigs
[bob] and "At least 9000 injuries have been reported from Aldgate East Station alone"
[bob] i lose faith in wikipedia
[kate] you really find this all highly amusing don't you!?
[NextTuesday] no don't lose faith in wikipedia, lose faith in the stupid people that read and modify it
[NextTuesday] it is not the technology but the twats that are to blame, and the people that ideally stand by and giggle at it
[esme] kate: a photo is aother way of keeping a historical record. What bob is saying is that if there were none taken and kept then the real story and all its power would be lost among dozens of conspiracy theories
[bob] photos are better than history books
[esme] powerful photographs help people to come to termns with stuff that's happened
[kate] yes, fine. But it is unsavoury to feel sad that you WEREN'T there to take pictures. bob should be grateful he wasn't there.
[bob] eh? who said i wasn't?
[esme] if you're really that offended by bob (and I feel you're blowing his marks out ofall context and reasoning) perhaps you should just /ignore him
[kate] you did - you said you were tempted to shoot up there and see if you could take any good pictures
[bob] yes, i think you're taking me out of context
[kate] perhaps
[NextTuesday] maybe you are missing the point, kate and I were 5 minutes from being involved in a bomb blast today
[NextTuesday] maybe we are a little sensitive to the piss taking and macarbe attitude
[esme] I don't think I am missing the point
[bob] who's taking the piss? not i
[kate] and I've spent all day hearing reports about dead people and injured people and plans and procedures and contingencies and retaliations
[NextTuesday] i would respect you if you said you wish you could rush there to help but you didn't
[bob] well, that would just be stupid really
[esme] if you're both so offended by the attitude here then can I suggest you leave?
[bob] like, how would i get to london
[NextTuesday] you seem to have considered it to get a "special souvenir photo"
[NextTuesday] but not to help dying\injured people
* esme sighs
[kate] esme: gladly. Until I've got my nerve back and some people have become a little more sensitve. I just pray hard that you never ever have to go through what I have today
-!- kate [kate@82.111.152.14276] has quit [Exit: see you soon once I've calmed down]
[pokpok] you assume other haven't been through similar
[bob] dearie me
[esme] too late pokpok
[pokpok] oh well
* crysanth sighs
[NextTuesday] actually i wish you had so bob could have stood over you taking pictures for the history books

Names have been changed to protect the innocent and the not so innocent. For the record, kate and NextTuesday were not nearly caught in the bombs, they were on completely different tube lines.

Anyway, this is relevent because of some pictures I saw today. The BBC news has put up twelve incredibly powerful pictures to commemorate The World Press Photo foundation's 50th anniversary of its annual photographic competition this year. Some of these pictures are far more powerful than I can express. They are also distressing, I think, but worth looking at.

The main argument of bob was essentially that a photograph would be the way that people would remember that day. I am already aware that the picture of the Bus in Tavistock Square is one of the iconic images of that day.

Anyway. Go look at the pictures. I cannot express just how amazing they are.

That link again.