Monday, May 2, 2011

David Gilkey

       My final photograph shows a handful of Marines stationed in Mian Poshteh, Afghanistan trying to catch dinner with a string and basket. The Marines are trying to capture a wild chicken that they can cook and eat for dinner to break away from the routine military issued food for dinner. The men actually were successful in their efforts as they caught and ate a chicken that night for dinner. The Marines were photographed by David Gilkey, a photographer for NPR.
       I found David Gilkey's photo with the Marines on the Best of Photojournalism 2010 website, where he received honorable mention in the international picture story album for the photos he captured that previous year. Gilkey photographs many different areas of photojournalism, but war is a main subject of his along with controversial issues that go on. Gilkey took this picture of the Marines and captured a lot of things within the photo, like although the men are at war they still seem to have a humorous side as they try catch their main course.
       This photo has a couple of different news values such as Impact, Bizarreness, Timeliness, and Proximity. The impact the photo has is the fact that these men are actually trying to catch a wild chicken for a decent meal other that the Ready to Eat Meals issued by the government. This picture is also very bizarre as you would think the men may just use a gun to kill the chicken, and the fact that the men are hiding behind the door using an old hunting technique to catch a chicken blows my mind. Timeliness comes into play as we realize that our troops are still over in foreign lands fighting a war for our freedom and seeing how they eat is saddening to me. Finally proximity grabs your attention as you realize that those men are U.S. troops and the connection you have with them by being an American pulls at your heart hoping that they come home safely.

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