Pictures of War

The photographs of five women make for a sobering exhibit in Dubovnik called
WOMEN
WARPH
OTOGR
APHERS
Ami Vitale, Paula Bronstein, Alexandra Boulat, Kate Brooks and Heidi Levine have covered conflicts in Kashmir, Arghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Croatia, Iraq, Israel and Palestine and turned out rooms full of images of blood and suffering.
Pictures of two Afghan women, aged 19 and 22, who immolated themselves in misery over forced marriages, but were “saved” before dying affected me the most. And one of a tiny child in front of a shell-pocked wall with a matching disease-pocked face.
Exhausted soldiers, burning buildings, women in burqas…corpses. I wanted to know why I had not seen these pictures before in newspapers or magazines.
With sharp focus, keen eyes and close-up vantage points on places most of us stay far away from these women really rattle viewers. I was depressed by the time we left.