SOME regular readers of this column are perhaps unaware that alongside my role as a writer I’ve worked as a war and documentary photographer throughout my career in journalism.
In fact, it’s probably fair to say that much as words remain close to my heart, photography remains my first love.
Stills photography especially, has a unique power that the moving image simply can’t match, for the single image has the capacity to take on an iconic quality that sears itself into our consciousness that lingers long after we first encounter it.
It’s for this reason that most of us can recall a specific historic photograph that seems indelibly etched into our mind’s eye.
It could be Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother from 1930s Depression America, Robert Capa’s dramatic blurry D-Day landing photograph from Omaha Beach or Eddie Adams’s Saigon execution picture from the Vietnam War – the list goes on.
It was the great French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, widely regarded as the father of modern photojournalism, who in 1952 published his first book The Decisive Moment, which to this day remains a photography classic.
READ MORE: Anger as Labour water down Lords reforms in King's Speech
While often mistakenly credited with the phrase he used as the book’s title, Cartier-Bresson in fact took it from the writing of the 17th-century French cleric, memoirist and political agitator Cardinal de Retz.
“There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment, and the masterpiece of good ruling is to know and seize this moment,” wrote De Retz.
I couldn’t help thinking again about both that decisive political and photographic moment after looking at the incredible images taken by photojournalists of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
In a world awash with conspiracy theorists and the digital and AI capacity to help fuel their often ludicrous obsessions, it was inevitable that cries of “fake”
would surface over the images taken of Trump and his Secret Service detail in the wake of the shooting in Pennsylvania. One photograph in particular came in for special scrutiny.
That photograph of a bloodied Trump pumping his fist in the air and the Stars and Stripes flag looming overhead became not only the pivotal image of last Saturday’s shooting, but most likely the definitive image certainly of the US election campaign and perhaps even 2024 as a whole.
Taken by the Associated Press (AP) photographer Evan Vucci, it was immediately questioned by a number of armchair sleuths, who among other things asked the question, where did the flag come from? I couldn’t see any flag behind Trump some argued online, after trawling through internet footage of the dramatic events.
What many of these photo detectives didn’t realise is that Vucci, a Pulitzer Prize winning veteran of covering wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, recognised the sound of gunfire instantly and after initially rushing to the stage at the right of Trump, realised the agents were in fact going to take him off stage left to which Vucci switched over quickly getting the composition that made such a memorable picture.
This included the flag that most people searching for in the footage from head-on at the front of the podium didn’t see because it was out of frame in those moving images.
From Vucci’s vantage point to the side however his compositional awareness along with foreshortening created by the lens caught a striking picture complete with all the elements including the flag.
Like many photographers and commentators on seeing Vucci’s image, I was instantly reminded of Joe Rosenthal’s AP photo of US Marines raising the American flag on Iwo Jima in the Second World War.
READ MORE: BBC director-general challenged over 'misleading' SNP headline
Perhaps because we now know that the story behind that famous picture is not as clear cut as first appeared, this helped fuel not only comparisons, but suspicions of the Vucci picture in the eyes of some.
FOR those readers unaware of the controversy surrounding Rosenthal’s Iwo Jima image, it was taken after an earlier first picture of US Marines with a makeshift flagpole caught the moment of the flag’s raising by a photographer called Louis Lowery.
But it was Rosenthal who caught the subsequent definitive picture when military chiefs insisted on a bigger flag being raised that would be visible from all over the island. That is the image that the world now recognises and of course inspired the US Marine Corps War Memorial in Virginia.
As photojournalists know, so many things contribute to an image’s potency. First there are the formal elements like composition, light and the use of colour or black and white. To the untrained eye they might not appear obvious to begin with but as viewers we almost all respond positively when they work in perfect aesthetic and formal unison.
Then there are those other contributing factors like the subject matter itself and the timing – that “decisive moment”.
Whether deliberate or not, the photograph too as we well know can act as a weapon, even if this was not the photographer’s original intention.
Vucci’s photograph then is sure to be expropriated and manipulated by some for their own nefarious political ends, even if today’s news agencies and photographers do all they can to prevent images from being misused in this way through copyright and other licensing rules.
Recent years have seen respected photo agencies and individual photographers themselves doggedly fight back against those making claim to images to whom intellectual or other copyright does not belong.
For Trump and his campaign team, they will doubtless seek to use the image and others of that day to further add to the mythology of their presidential candidate.
For that reason Vucci’s picture is a visual godsend for Trump even if that was never the intention. The question now is whether the power of photography’s “decisive moment” can be translated into a political one for team Trump.
All of which is not to take away from the positive things that Vucci’s image has helped remind us about photojournalism.
I’m speaking of the fact that after 175 years of photography and in an age of moving images, often cynical digital manipulation and AI, the capacity of the stills image to capture a moment in time for posterity remains as powerful as ever.
It’s worth pausing for a moment also to remember that while photojournalism remains vulnerable to malign manipulation and propaganda, far and away throughout history and in the right hands it has acted as a force for good.
In our contemporary world swamped as it is with images, that in itself is something we should never lose sight of.
For those readers interested in David Pratt’s war and documentary photography his images can be viewed at davidpratt.co.uk
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel