Pulitzer Prize winning photographer and author of It’s What I Do, Lindsey Addario, incorporates strong visual images in her novel to give strong emotional meaning to her stories. Not only are all her images she uses very impressive, but they are also extremely striking and powerful. It is not an everyday scene to see warzones, but this is why Addario felt compelled to include physical copies of them in her book. She wants her readers to truly see what she saw and gain a different perspective on war and the people involved in it. These images also serve a purpose to understand how much Addario went through as well. She was in every warzone, amongst many horrific events, taking these pictures.

One of Addario’s images that strikes me is on page 238. It shows a group of Somali children trying to feed biscuits to a woman suffering from dehydration and hunger. This instantly captured my attention because usually, it is the woman feeding the children, but in this case, it is reversed. The woman looks extremely desperate and deprived, and the young children are trying so intently to get food to her. Another aspect of this image that struck me was the fact that she is breastfeeding a child, possibly her own, in the picture. Even though she is clearly suffering immensely from the undernourishment of the refugee camp, she still gives every ounce of her body and energy to this baby. This picture illustrates the importance of community and dependence on one another during an atrocious circumstance.

Another image Addario uses in her novel that caught my attention is on page 218 and shows a skull and bones laying in the middle of a war zone. The skull is the center focus of the image, and it is closest to the camera, which had a very powerful impact on me. It is not a regular occurrence to see human bones laying around, yet it was an everyday sight in the war zone, and this is clear by the way soldiers are casually walking around it in the picture. This gave me a visual example of how morbid and sad war zones are, along with being dangerous and deathly.

Addario’s use of images in her novel capture her story and scenes perfectly. I can use images to do the same in my passion blog. Certain people, like myself, need visual aids to help them stay interested, understand the reading, and make the reading memorable. With that said, I can use images with my examples in my blog, like certain people and events in my life that I allude to. This will allow others to visually interpret what I am trying to explain. I can also use powerful images in my blog to capture my readers’ attention and lock the idea in their minds. Images are a very strong tool to use while writing to any audience.