Alisa Lebow's Shooting With Intent: Framing Conflict

Guns, Cameras, War: An Analysis of ‘Shooting with Intent: Framing Conflict”

In an age where the news is dominated by visual media and wars, there is a constant stream of images portraying the horrors of these conflicts are more prevalent than ever. Members of society are constantly bombarded with images of death, genocide, terrorist attacks and other acts of violence as brave amateurs and journalists attempt to document the horrors individuals endure. In 2012, scholar Alisa Lebow wrote, “Shooting with Intent: Framing Conflict,” an essay where she analyzed the role of the camera, detailed Gunsight POV and Barrel POV, the two primary perspectives used when filming wars, highlighted the analogous relationship between the camera and gun. Lebow

Lebow’s piece has four main sections, an introduction where she explores the stark similarities between the camera and the gun, an analysis of Gunsight POV, an analysis of Barrel POV through the lens of the Burma VJ film, and a critique of Barrel POV through the lens of B’tselem project. Lebow’s introduction focuses on the history of the gun and the camera, specifically how early cameras we appeared and functioned similarly to guns and the historical use of cameras in wars. Following her contextualization of the topic, Lebow introduces the idea of Gunsight and Barrel POVs, calling them the “two distinct positionalities that visual realist filmmaking can take within the context of violent conflict zones” (Lebow, 43), before transitioning to her analysis of these two POVs in the context of the Burma VJ film and the Shooting Back Project. In her analysis of Gunsight POV, which she describes a perspective from the soldier’s weapon or body to mimic their viewpoint usually “official or governmental, she describes the immersive nature of the preservative leaving the audience feeling like they themselves are a soldier in the combat

Lebow cites writer, Allen Friedman’s account of the power of the camera in war, calling it “tantamount to aggression” (Lebow, 46). “Framing or focusing a camera lens on a human subject...was tantamount to an act of hostility.” Lebow’s use of Friedman’s accounts clearly supports her argument the overall power of the camera as an instrument of war. Additionally, Lebow establishes the idea that “To be caught in the sightlines of the enemy’s camera, is to foreshadow being caught in the crosshairs of the enemy’s gun.” The power of the camera was also present in the leaked military footage. In the clip, we saw the identification of hostile forces on camera before the sights of the guns were fixed and pulled by the