Tampa Photography Blog

WARNING: The video discussed in this blog is violently graphic and contains nudity. Please be aware of this before viewing it. Thank you!

Singer and rapper M.I.A. debuted the graphic video “Born Free” on Monday and the cyber chatter hasn’t stopped since.

No one is quite sure what the underlying message is but that probably is the message: think for yourself.

The 9-minute video shows SWAT-like men rounding up red-headed boys from a neighborhood and forcing them on a bus. The boys are then taken to a desert and lined up, execution style, then told to run into the desert. One boy stands there, paralyzed by fear. He is shot in the head in a scene not unlike that of Eddie Adams’ Pulitzer Prize winning photo of a suspected Viet Cong being executed.

The other boys run through the desert only to be surprised by land mines, one of which blows a boy to pieces.

Now, most people might ask, “What’s the point?” Well, you may not know her message but just like I am blogging about the video that made my mouth drop, you’ll probably have an opinion on it too. She’s hoping for a reaction, a discussion, an argument, a feeling.

While this is supposed to be a “music video”, I do understand the point of shooting something to elicit a reaction. Some still photographers don’t care if you like their photo, as long as you feel something about. We’ve all seen graphic images from war that make us cringe and turn away but we still felt something when we looked at it.

You Tube decided to pull the video from their site due to its graphic nature. I understand the need to protect others from viewing such graphic violence if they think they’re just viewing a hip hop music video. But I don’t see this being any worse than photos or videos that document reality.

Try looking at photos from the earthquake in Haiti or the West Virginia mine explosion or even Hurricane Katrina. I still think about the people I photographed in New Orleans after Katrina hit and I hope someone saw my photos and paused to think about the people in them.