(Photograph of Flag Raising on Iwo Jima, 02/23/1945 (NWDNS-80-G-413988), National Archives)
Taking pictures of war is a complicated business. For everyone – photographers and viewers. The late philosopher Susan Sontag thought a lot about that – about whether looking at photos of war makes us recoil from violence. Or whether something else is going on. She wrote a classic book on the subject, called “Regarding the Pain of Others.” And in this interview she told Steve Paulson that the history of war photography is full of contradictions.