Against a bleak backdrop, US troops wave an American flag across gray skies. The pieces of debris at their feet speak of the arduous journey these soldiers had undertaken to reach the mountain's summit. Despite the gloomy position on the ground, the American flag flutters perfectly following the gusts of wind. Like a photograph taken by Joe Rosenthal in 1945, this image of U.S. troops raising a flag on Iwo Jima during World War II served as a symbol of hope and victory for the American public during the war's gruesome end. The photograph earned Rosenthal a Pulitzer Prize and demonstrated the power of a photograph to evoke emotion in an audience. These emotions have the ability to influence the perception of what the photograph depicts. However, if these photographs can produce an emotional response, is it possible for them to steer public perception in the desired direction? If so, is there a way to screen for possible propaganda? The problem of misleading photographs is present in Susan Sontag's essay “Looking at War”. Sontag looks at the effect a photograph has on the audience. He writes that “the photographs say, this is what [war is]” (Sontag, 141), guiding the conception of audiences who had not had the direct experience of being on the battlefield. Photographs are able to convey a message beyond the confines of a frame; inserting words into a physical representation that you feel you can relate to. These images, according to Sontag, are “photography as shock” (Sontag, 140) and are designed to elicit an emotional response from the audience. These shocking images are able to “show how war evacuates, shatters, breaks, levels the… center of the paper… the individual subject in the image, and perhaps, by putting yourself in their shoes, deepens your understanding of your own autonomy . Once you are able to find the application for yourself, you have successfully filtered out the subjectivity of the photographer and established your own subjectivity towards the image. Works CitedCorder, Joe. “Pain for oneself.” Opportunities for writing: tests, ideas, essays. Boston, MA:Thomson Heinle, 2008. 139-144. Print.Rosenthal, Joe. “Raise the flag on Iwo Jima.” 1945. Photogrpah.Sontag, Susan. "Watching the war." Writing the essay: Art in the world, the world through art. Ed. Darlene A Forrest, Benjamin W. Stewart and Randy Martin. New York: McGraw, 2013. 139-157. Print.Weschler, Lawrence. “Vermeer in Bosnia”. Opportunities for writing: tests, ideas, essays. Boston, MA: Thomson Heinle, 2008. 778-785. Press.