A statue in bronze
Often a still photograph is more powerful than a moving picture of the same event. This is true, for instance, of the iconic still photograph of the Marines stepping the flag on Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima.
If you have seen the film of this event, it is not particularly remarkable. But the still photograph is riveting. It is rendered in bronze at the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial in Washington, D.C., the classic representation of fidelity and teamwork leading to victory.
AT provided embedded videos of what happened on the street outside the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris yesterday morning. There is footage of two jihadis crossing the street and one of them shooting the prone French policeman. The policeman rolls over to face them with his hands in a surrender position. Then he is casually shot in the head by one of the jihadis.
While an atrocity, the shooting of the policeman occurs so suddenly in the video that it doesn’t have time to impact the viewer. There is a still of this online that captures the moment just as the jihadi has raised his weapon to execute the policeman and the policeman has rolled over so that he is face-up, hands out.
This scene should be rendered in bronze, and displayed prominently – so it is (a) seen and (b) not forgotten.