Defense Secretary Commends Pants-less Soldier in AP Photo

Hot photo alert! On May 11, Associated Press staffer David Guttenfelder shot this image in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan.

Based on the incredible attention it has received in the last two weeks, this picture seems likely to join Luis Sinco's Marlboro Marine in the canon of popular 21st-century war photos.

The photo shows members of the U.S. Army First Battalion, 26th Infantry, in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan's Kunar Province. The man in the pink boxer shorts and sandals is Spc. Zachery Boyd, 19, of Fort Worth, Texas, who, according to the caption, rushed from his sleeping quarters to join his fellow platoon members.

The New York Times ran this picture above the fold on May 12, and the next day Boyd's hometown paper, the Star-Telegram, ran an article about it. It got more attention this week when the Times featured it on its new Lens photo blog. And for the icing on the cake, Defense Secretary Robert Gates mentioned Spc. Boyd in a speech last night:

“Any soldier who goes into battle against the Taliban in pink boxers and flip flops has a special kind of courage,” Gates said. “Just imagine seeing that – a guy in pink boxers and flip-flops has you in his crosshairs. What an incredible innovation in psychological warfare.”

Rare is the war photograph that connects with so many people—from a soldier's family, to newspaper editors, to the Secretary of Defense. What makes this picture work?

• For starers, it's a well-shot, well-composed photo that tells a story in about two seconds. Which of these things is not like the other?
• This photo plays into America's aspirations for its soldiers: Bravery, camaraderie, and charming human foibles.
• It gives people a gentle reminder that young soldiers are still doing exhausting, dangerous work in Afghanistan. At the same time, the photo carries just enough humor that nobody feels bad when they see it.
• It shows the war at its simplest: Us versus the enemy, a shooting match between two distinct armies.

In other words, it's a white-washed version of a complicated war. This picture is like a Norman Rockwell painting. It assures us things are as they should be. This observation is not meant to diminish Guttenfelder's work; obviously this is not his only picture from Afghanistan. But it does reveal why war journalism is so tricky. It's easier to summon an audience when you show people what they want to see.

Related story: Read a PDN story about David Guttenfelder from 2007.

Comments

[Dan Havlik]

Nice analysis Daryl. But don't forget that New Yorkers also like this photo because the guy's boxers say: "I Love NY," which conjures up memories of 9/11. The photo definitely touches all the chords.

[Ranger 9]

In this case maybe "what [people] want to see" is not so different from the way things really are, and Lang is casting the photo as a Rockwellian "whitewash" purely because it doesn't reflect the sociopolitical agenda HE wants to see...

[Uncomfortable]

Pretty disturbing story: the guy gets praises for wearing a red shirt, pink boxers and sleepers on the front line. Really? What's next: medal of honor or something for wearing a target sign? I could see why the photo is something different and funny but that is about it. "I love NY" on his shorts giving people teary eyes is a caricature of our society by any standard. PDN: can you just comment on the artistic merits (or lack thereof) of such images?

[joji]

Well, for one thing, I think it is not what the people want to see but the way the photographer wants the people to see. The artistic merits of the shoot are, you know, sometimes a bit irrelevant when we talk of people dying in war. In the end, it is the journalist who wins; his assertion of his ideology gets worldwide attention. For isn't this photo symbolic of what he wants- whether for economic gains, for artistic recognition, or plain display of ideology? I like the photo, though. A pink boxer shorts in a war picture is simply very postmodern.

Hasn't Obama commented on the picture and what it represents?