The authenticity of war photography has long been a contentious issue, even before photographer Frank Hurley memorably upset the Australian military leadership with his dramatized montages of the Western Front during World War One. Rather than avoiding popular ideas of what war is like, the beginning of this article discusses how recent war photographers, such as the late Tim Hetherington, came to recognize and accept the fact that all-pervasive media images actually influence the behaviour of soldiers and civilians alike in war zones.

For the full article, see the August edition of the British Journal of Photography in The Hub

US Marine serving in Marja, Afghanistan. Image © Adam Ferguson