This photo, taken by Kevin Frayer, was featured on pages 12-13 of National Geographic's February edition. That's pages 12 and 13 out of 145, the first two page spread in the magazine that month. Without reading the caption, it's hard to grasp what's going on in this picture, or more importantly why National Geographic decided it is such an essential photo that it should be given prime placement in the magazine. The only thing that's clear is that there is a man leading a flock of sheep through a gap in some sort of wall. The caption reads:
The words "lone," "strife," "insecurity," and "dire" stimulate our natural humanitarian impulses. Whomever authored this caption was shooting to appeal to the readers emotionally, hoping that the caption would arouse some sympathetic feelings towards this poor Shepard who is (not coincidentally) in Afghanistan, a country the United States currently has soldiers fighting a war in."Afghanistan—On drought-pocked earth near Marjah, in the restive Helmand Province, a lone shepherd leads his sheep through a mud wall's gap. Scenes of pastoral grace persist in this agriculturally intensive country, despite strife, insecurity, and dire food shortages."
I don't think Frayer intended for his photo to become anti-war propaganda, but it is quite plain that National Geographic published it in their magazine with that exact message in mind. What other subliminal anti-war messages are present in the media today?
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