Do Photos Tell More Truth Than Words? Boston Photographs
This paper analyzes Nora Ephron's essay "Boston Photographs," in which Ephron defends newspaper editors who chose to print a trilogy of images capturing a woman's fatal fall from a burning building in 1975. The paper examines photojournalist Stanley Forman's Pulitzer Prize-winning sequence alongside three other iconic and controversial images: Eddie Adams's 1968 Saigon execution photograph, Nick Ut's 1972 photograph of a napalm-burned Vietnamese girl, and Richard Drew's 2001 "Falling Man" photograph from September 11. Through close visual analysis of each image, the paper argues that photojournalism can convey emotional truth more immediately and powerfully than written journalism alone.
- Introduction: Ephron's Argument for Printing Difficult Photos: Ephron defends printing photos of death
- The Boston Photographs: Forman's Three-Frame Sequence: Visual analysis of Forman's three photographs
- Eddie Adams and the Saigon Execution: Adams's iconic Tet Offensive execution photo
- Nick Ut's Napalm Girl: 1972 napalm photograph as antiwar symbol
- Richard Drew's Falling Man: Drew's 9/11 photograph and public controversy
- Photojournalism Versus Written Journalism: Images evoke stronger response than words
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper uses close visual analysis to support its argument, moving through each photograph's compositional details — posture, expression, clothing, background — before drawing interpretive conclusions.
- It acknowledges the limits of photographic interpretation honestly, noting that viewers project emotions onto subjects and cannot verify inferred characteristics from images alone.
- The comparative structure is well-organized: each photograph is introduced with its historical context, analyzed visually, and then compared back to the Boston Photographs, creating a coherent through-line.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates rhetorical analysis applied to visual media. Rather than simply describing what photographs show, the writer interrogates why images produce emotional responses and what role context — race, circumstance, accompanying text — plays in shaping viewer interpretation. This reflects a sophisticated understanding of how meaning is constructed in journalism.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens by summarizing Ephron's argument, then moves through four photographs in roughly chronological order (1968–2001). Each section provides historical background, visual description, emotional analysis, and a brief comparison to the Boston Photographs. The conclusion synthesizes the argument that photojournalism produces a more immediate and powerful response than written accounts, returning to Ephron's original thesis.
Introduction: Ephron's Argument for Printing Difficult Photos
In The Boston Photographs, writer Nora Ephron makes a case supporting the decision by newspaper editors to print a photo trilogy showing the tragic moments leading up to the death of a young mother. At the time the photos were printed in over four hundred newspapers across the nation, there was great controversy. Readers expressed their outrage in phone calls and letters to the editor, and some editors chose not to print the photos at all.
Ephron argued that since death is part of life, readers should not be sheltered from it. She asked why photos from fatal car accidents show the wrecked vehicles and not the victims. Mangled steel is worthless; a human life is priceless. Why not capture on film the loss of that which is truly precious?
The newsworthiness of a tragic fire is, in many cases, the photos themselves. Unfortunately, people die in fires in the United States all the time. Accounts of such fires are tragic, but as news stories they are usually only relevant to the families and friends of the victims and to the people who live in the community where the tragedy took place. Ephron does not argue that newspapers should print photographs of death. She argues that they should print great pictures that tell a story and evoke a strong emotional response from readers.
References
BBC News. (2005). Picture power: Vietnam napalm attack. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4517597.stm
Ephron, N. (2005). The Boston photographs, reprinted in Chris Anderson and Lex Runciman, eds., Open Questions: Readings for Critical Thinking and Writing. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's. Retrieved from
Junod, T. (2009, September 8). The falling man. Esquire. Retrieved from
PulitzerPrize.org. (2010). Photography: Pulitzer Eddie Adams Vietnam. http://pulitzerprize.org/photography/vietnam/
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