Letter: Blinded by bleak images of war

SEVERAL ASPECTS of your article about the photograph of a Vietnamese man being murdered gave me misgivings ("Snap decisions", Review, 12 December). The discussion wavered between a distasteful prurience and a chilling view of war photos as art works, with Harold Evans bemoaning the lack of "memorable composition" of bodies photographed in Kosovo. What a shame our intelligent bombs lacked the artistic sensibility to arrange the carnage more pleasingly. The value of the picture is that it made us aware of the obscenity of war and our ability to do nothing about it. The Sunday papers' juxtaposition of Biafra and Badedas is well documented but has it so distorted our critical faculties that we can no longer distinguish between art and depravity?

PAUL HEATH

Milton Malsor, Northamptonshire