Emma Fringuelli
Since Feb. 24, 2022, when Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s army launched a full-scale war in Ukraine after eight years of conflict in Donbas, footage of the carnage has flooded every type of media.
As a Ukrainian-American who studies Eastern Europe, I spent these nearly two years watching the destruction left in the Russian army’s wake: the indiscriminate killing of civilians in Bucha and Irpin, the ruins of the cities Mariupol and Avdiivka, a missile launched at a funeral service in Hroza… the list goes on.
I have watched and translated videos of confrontations between Ukrainian and Russian forces and post-shelling rescue missions in order to try to dispel misinformation and give context. I follow photojournalists in Ukraine in order to support their reporting and supplement my own research. I have exposed myself to this terrifyingly graphic material.
An unintended consequence is that now on my social-media feeds, I am often served videos of the war that are so graphic, I will not write about them here. Uncensored and without any warning, these visuals will be seared into my memory forever.
Now, not only are such images still coming out of Ukraine but more just like them are coming out from the Gaza Strip and Israel.
Since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in Israel, both the mainstream news and accounts on social media are constantly showing photos and videos of sheer horror: photos of family members carrying the limp bodies of dead loved ones, residential areas reduced to rubble – even a press conference at the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital where doctors spoke to the press from a podium surrounded by piles of dead bodies.
These nightmarish sights are often accompanied by pleas to not look away or turn a blind eye to the suffering, but I am begging you:
Please look away.
It may be strange to hear a photojournalist tell you to stop looking at visuals coming out of an active warzone. I do not say this because I think the work of photographers in Israel and Gaza is useless. These photos and videos are necessary for international organizations to prosecute war crimes, for journalists to carry out investigations, and for far-away refugees and relatives to keep tabs on their families and homes.
But these images are not useful for you. Not anymore.
After watching footage from the war in Ukraine, even if I intended to do something meaningful, I just wanted to stop. I did not want to watch any more videos or do any more research. In one case, after accidentally watching an especially gruesome video, I literally threw my phone and broke down.
At that moment, no matter how much I wanted to do anything to help the people of Ukraine, I could not. I was overwhelmed to the point of uselessness.
So when I implore you to look away, know that I am not telling you to ignore these conflicts. I want you to look away so that you can help these people. You do not have to subject yourself to images that will scar you in order to make an impact. Rather, seeing these images will likely make you so upset that you, like me, become useless.
If you are thinking about sharing a video or image with graphic content from these warzones – or just in general – consider why. Posting a shocking image of a victim of a bombing does not bring them back to life. Sharing videos of towns being leveled does not rebuild them. What can actually help is sharing links to verified fundraisers and checking in on those who are being affected.
Furthermore, if you are intent on sharing a post, make sure you are sharing accurate information. Recently, a video on Facebook claimed to show a boy in Gaza, but was really a 9-year-old video from Syria. I have even seen images of Ukrainian cities razed by Russia labeled as Gaza. Not only do these posts spread misinformation, they can retraumatize those who already lived through the actual events.
In Greg McLaughlin’s book “The War Correspondent,” he quotes Independent Television News cameraman Jon Steele, who developed PTSD while covering the Bosnian War.
“You keep looking for pictures, looking for pictures, which means you have to look at this stuff. You have to look at the blood, you have to look at the carnage… you have to look at the faces screaming at you in pain. And you take that in. You are the camera. It goes through the lens, into the eyepiece, into your eyes, into your brain, into your heart and into your soul. And it never leaves. It stays there forever.”
While we may not physically be in Donbas, Gaza, or Israel, we have so much access to live, uncensored, unfiltered imagery that it can feel like we are. We become the camera that Steele describes, and those images do stay in our souls forever.
So if you want to do something meaningful, spare your soul and do anything other than just stare at the horror.
Emma Fringuelli is a staff photographer and writer for The Item.
