Guest Post: Do Photos Lie? by Joshua Graham
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Today, I've got Joshua Graham, author of Darkroom, visiting today to talk about photography, the media, and whether everything is as it appears. Like photographs and media stories, humans often hide their secrets, but what we condemn in others may not necessarily be the same things we condemn in ourselves. I've been fascinated with this concept ever since dabbling into photography and reading Believing Is Seeing by Errol Morris (my review).
About Darkroom:
After scattering her mother's ashes in Vietnam, photojournalist Xandra Carrick comes home to New York to rebuild her life and career. When she experiences supernatural visions that reveal atrocities perpetrated by American soldiers during the Vietnam War, she finds herself entangled in a forty-year-old conspiracy that could bring the nation into political turmoil. Launching headlong into a quest to learn the truth from her father, Peter Carrick, a Pulitzer Prize Laureate who served as an embedded photographer during the war, Xandra confronts him about a dark secret he has kept--one that has devastated their family.
Her investigations lead her to her departed mother's journal, which tell of love, spiritual awakening, and surviving the fall of Saigon.
Pursued across the continent, Xandra comes face-to-face with powerful forces that will stop at nothing to prevent her from revealing the truth. But not before government agencies arrest her for murder, domestic terrorism and an assassination attempt on the newly elected president of the United States.
Darkroom is a riveting tale of suspense that tears the covers off the human struggle for truth in a world imprisoned by lies. Doesn't this book sound awesome?! Without further ado, please give Joshua Graham a warm welcome and stay tuned for my review later in the month.
This photo and the photographer’s commentary inspired the epitaph in the opening pages of my novel, Darkroom.
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Read more here at TIME Magazine.
Adams, who believed Brig. Gen. Loan’s contention that the man he shot had just murdered a friend of his, a South Vietnamese army colonel, as well as the colonel’s wife and six children. “How do you know you wouldn’t have pulled the trigger yourself?” Adams would later write in a commentary on the image.
Often the media puts things together in ways that have little to do with the truth. Impressions are fabricated for various agendas, and unfortunately most are created to boost the ratings with sensationalism. But what happens when the truth is distorted or even buried completely? And what happens if the contained truth is uncovered?
This is not just a global concern, but a personal one as well. Do we try to cover up our weaknesses and failures at the expense of authenticity or integrity? We cry foul when politicians and elected officials are caught doing this, but do we ever ask how we are doing the very same thing, in our own personal lives?
Constantly looking over your shoulder, trying to contain a secret that no one must ever know has got to be one of the worst prisons anyone can face, especially because it is self-imposed. There’s a reason why the scriptures say, “The truth shall set you free.” And this is what Darkroom is all about.
Take a moment to examine yourself and see if you’re sitting in a self-imposed cell. And consider the freedom you’ll enjoy because of the truth. Thanks, Joshua, for sharing your thoughts on truth and fiction.
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About the Author:
Joshua Graham is the award winning author of the #1 Amazon and Barnes & Noble legal thriller Beyond Justice. His latest book, Darkroom, won a First Prize award in the Forward National Literature award and was an award-winner in the USA Book News “Bests Books 2011” awards. Connect with Josh at his Website, Facebook, and on Twitter.
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