One Woman's War

The following is reposted from the BBC News website. I was informed of this woman's work through Photo Betty, and went to view her article. I feel it is very poignant to repost here because Rita is a woman who is obviously making a difference, and because this is the five-year anniversary of the US-Iraq war.

Canadian photojournalist Rita Leistner traveled to Baghdad in 2003 as a freelance reporter determined to get behind the front lines of the war in Iraq. Over the next 18 months she returned to the country several times capturing images of life with the troops - as well as behind the scenes in a psychiatric hospital.

www.news.bbc.co.uk

Watching Rita's video diary reminds me of seeing the Pulitzer Prize Photography Exhibit a few years ago. This traveling exhibit, which I saw at the Minnesota Historical Society, was comprised of many iconic photos that we all know, such as the flag raising at Iwo Jima and the photo of a young Vietnamese girl who has just been napalmed. After spending hours at this exhibit I came to a very sad conclusion. While these photos are all very iconic and I enjoy them, and each time I look at them I learn something new, a vast majority of them were only made because of tragedy (war, disasters, etc). It is sad that so many powerful images are made because of what humans can do to one another, and it is sad that Rita's amazing images are made on the same principle. As Wordsworth once remarked in his poem Lines Written in Early Spring, "And much it grieved my heart to think/What man has made of man.." Perhaps the work of people like Rita Leistner will allow us to one day live in a world without war, ignorance and oppression. That, I think, is the goal of all Women Warriors.

To learn more about the traveling Pulitzer Exhibit follow these links:
www.newseum.org
www.mnhs.org