Ever since Matthew Brady took his camera to the bloody fields of the American Civil War, photography has been an integral part of narrating wars. And beginning with Brady, aesthetic problems arose: How do you make unspeakable subjects bearable, or presentable, and is solving such a dilemma even ethical? Much of the iconic photography of the last few years has been the work of well-placed amateurs–think of the London bombings and the Abu Ghraib prison scandal–which skew unambiguously to the rawness of the subject. But even with the democratization of digital photography and its dissemination, professionals are still struggling with the balance of beauty principles and the imperative to be truthful. At 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 25, Chris Hondros, a Fayetteville native, NCSU grad and Getty photographer, will be on hand at the Gallery of Art and Design on the N.C. State campus to talk about his war photography in an exhibit entitled War in Shadows and Light. The reception begins at 6 p.m., and the exhibit will be up through Oct. 6. Visit www.ncsu.edu/gad for details.
