“The photojournalism of the Vietnamese conflict as religious art” Ph.D. Dissertation by Jann Cather Weaver

Abstract: Using Paul Tillich’s methods for discerning religious dimensions in visual art, the photojournalism of the Vietnamese Conflict is viewed as contemporary religious art. Tillich delineates two methods for discerning religious dimensions in art: four levels of relation between religion and art; five stylistic elements conveying religious dimensions. While not a systematic theological structure, Tillich’s methods fall within an existentialist theological framework. His methods are rooted in his basic conviction of art visually conveying eschatological Hope and Possibility by giving aesthetic form to the most tragic and heinous. In response to critiques about Tillich’s Platonic leanings, Tillich’s methods are placed within a dialectical and continuous paradigm, permitting renewed application of his methods to contemporary visual art. Photojournalism, usually regarded as an objective medium, is inherently interpretive. Given this interpretive nature, pieces of photojournalism can embody the essential elements of visual art: aesthetics, composition, form, style, and transformation of the ordinary. In addition to Tillich’s methods, a three-fold method of description used by Susan D. Moeller in Shooting War (Basic Books, 1989) is delineated: (1) Context: Historical, Political-Philosophical; (2) Photographer: Perception – Experience; (3) Photograph: Audience – Aesthetic of Truth. The methods of both Tillich and Moeller are first applied to non-photographic visual-art images of war: Francisco Goya’s Los Desastres de la Guerra (1808-1823) and Pablo Picasso’s Guernica (1937). These methods are then applied to four pieces of photojournalism from the Vietnamese Conflict to discern their religious dimensions: Malcolm Browne’s 1963 photograph of Thich Quang Duc’s self-immolation in Saigon; Eddie Adams’ 1968 photograph of a summary execution by a South Vietnamese officer; Ronald Haeberle’s 1968 photograph from the My Lai massacre; Huynh Cong Ut’s 1972 photograph of South Vietnamese children fleeing their napalmed village. These photographs are then compared to Goya’s and Picasso’s visual-art images of war. Viewed in this methodological light, photojournalism serves as religious art, as well as theological text, for church and world. Secular photojournalism sets before the church a visual, historical, and theological conscience–and consciousness. The church sets before photojournalism a theological understanding of its critical role in a complex
world.