It seems paradoxical to say that gentleness and joy are contained in Beuford Smith’s work, even at its fiercest, but the truth of that is perhaps his greatest accomplishment and the firmest possible foundation for the major body of work he has just begun — and, indeed, can at this stage hardly avoid — creating. […]
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This raises another question broached by Brian Wallis — his assertion that, as a general principle, “comment” automatically constitutes an “alteration” even when said “comment” comprises nothing more than what Mr. Prince acknowledges is “gobblygook” (sic). If even incomprehensible prose inherently represents the activity we call “commenting,” then all speech qualifies as commentary, in which case the “comment” requirement of the “fair use” exception becomes meaningless. […] It is from these two real observations that the story of “Bloody Omaha” was constructed and that it spread very soon after the landings: the most deadly beach overall and the shock of the first wave on certain sectors. It is by following the history of the construction of this narrative that we can understand how Capa’s famous photographs were received and interpreted, and where the (false) idea that they were taken during a terribly deadly assault, that of the first wave at Omaha Beach, came from. […] [Back in August of 2021 Patrick Peccatte introduced me, via email, to Philippe Villéger. Villéger is a member of the informal collective devoted to annotating the historic WWII images of Normandy posted online at PhotosNormandie, another internet project to which Peccatte contributes. (For more about Peccatte, Villéger, and the PhotosNormandie project, see the details at […] [Back in August of 2021 Patrick Peccatte introduced me, via email, to Philippe Villéger. Assiduous followers of this investigation will remember Peccatte, a specialist in photographs of Normandy, as the reader who, at his own his French-language blog Hypotheses, published a response to the Capa D-Day Project that sent it viral in France in summer […] |
 SPJ Research Award 2014 |