Callie Cummings
History of Photography
Frank Hamrick
The Bang Bang Club
The Bang Bang Club
In the film The Bang Bang Club, written and directed by Steven Silver, the issue of combat
photography is front and center. The film is based on a true story and the autobiography of two
of the members of the Bang Bang Club and follows four young photographers in South Africa
during the Apartheid period. This film attempts to paint a picture of the lives, and deaths,
captured by the photojournalists’ lenses and of the members of The Bang Bang Club itself.
The cinematography of the film captures a genuine feeling of what the photographer’s camera is
viewing, with shaking and uncontrolled movement coinciding with the body movements and
erratic actions of the photographer. However, this is not the only style of shooting used in the
