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• 1 2024-03-21T15:02:07-07:00 Through the Lens of Conflict: Comparing Images from Nicaragua and Ukraine's War Zones 53 In this article, I will be comparing and contrasting images from the Revolution that took place in Nicaragua that were taken by Susan Meiselas in 1979, and images of Ukraine when Russia launched a full-scale invasion in 2022 taken by various photographers. image_header 2024-05-12T12:12:17-07:00 The Nicaraguan revolution started around 1978 and ended around 1980 this was due to the rising opposition of the dictatorship which at the time was lead by the Somoza family who had been dictators in Nicaragua for over 43 years. This time frame ranges from 1936 to 1979 which is when the dictator ship came to an end. At this time is when the citizens decided to essentially ride against the government and say that they don't want to continue into this dictator ship, and this is when chaos breaks out through Nicaragua, and we will be seeing images that Susan Meiselas took during her time experiencing this Revolution. The images that Susan took are going to be compared and contrasted to images that were taken by people who are experiencing the Ukraine war that started in February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, and Russia, invaded Ukraine because Putin had tension with NATO and he was trying to stop further expansion eastword of NATO.
  
  The first set of images, I want to talk about is two images in my opinion that I feel are very intense to look at both images are showing a dead body one which is presumed to be a Russian soldier (Maksim Levin took this image in Kharkiv, Ukriane) but they are not really able to identify who it is since there is no proper identification and then the second image is a bottom half of a torso that was taken in Managua, Nicaragua, which shows the body on a hillside outside Managua, which was a known site of many assassinations carried out by the National Guard. Both of these images capture someone who has passed away due to violence. I don't know exactly why the person on the hillside was murdered, but I can only assume it is due to what was happening in Nicaragua at the time during the revolution, and to the soldier who passed away, we know it is due to the war that is currently taking place in Ukraine. One thing that both of these images have in common is a mutilated hand in the image, for the soldier, you can see that his hand has been mutilated. I don't know exactly how, and in the picture that was taken on the hillside, you can see that the arm and hand were cut off the upper body and are now lying next to the bottom, half of the torso decomposing. The differences between these images is that the one that was taken in Ukraine seem to be in the middle of the street where there can be multiple people walking by looking at this body laying there, while the one on the hillside is in a secluded area far away from people who would never know if there was a body up there or not. These images are very powerful and they invoke emotion because it's not something you're used to seeing you would never expect to see a dead soldier laying in the middle of the street or a half of the tour so decomposing in the middle of nowhere. 
  
  The next set of images that I want to compare, and contrast are very strong images, not compared to the first ones. I spoke about already, but in the sense of the people who are actually fighting in these war/revolutions. The first image I will be talking about is a group of Ukrainian National Guards setting up defense at central Kyiv as Russian forces advanced toward the capital. (Gleb Garanich took this image in Kyiv, Ukriane) The second image was taken at the final assault on the Esteli National Guard headquarters in Nicaragua, and in this image we are looking at a group of civilians who I would say are soldiers setting up their defense to attack the National Guard Headquarters in Esteli Nicaragua. When looking at these images, we have two groups setting up, ready to defend what they are believing in. When looking at the Image that was taken in Ukraine we know that they are trying to defend the center while in Nicaragua we know that they are trying to conduct their final assault on the National Guard headquarters. The difference between both of these images is that we know that they are the National Guard so they have the proper training and equipment to actually defend themselves against Russia but in the image from the Esteli, I can just it's just ordinary people without the proper equipment or training to defend themselves other than the barrier that was built around headquarters. These images to me are very eye-opening, because we have two groups who are fighting for what they believe is right, and they are willing to put their lives at risk with the proper equipment and without proper equipment, it is to be our ordinary people who are supporting the cause, no matter the risk or consequence.
  
  
  The last set of images that I want talk about I believe are strongly connected, you can visibly see that they are same, even though they are both taken in different areas of the world, one being Ukraine, and the other one being in Nicaragua. The first image that I want to talk about is Molotov Man, which is one of Susan's most recognized image that she took during the Nicaraguan revolution. In this image we have Pablo Aráuz, who was also known as Bareta, who was a member of the leftist Sandinista resistance in this image Pablo is throwing a Molotov cocktail in a Pepsi bottle at the National Guard headquarters in Esteli. The second image we have a group of civilians, who are being trained to throw molotov cocktails so they can be able to defend the city. (Viacheslav Ratynskyi took this image in Zhytomyr, Ukraine) In my opinion, I believe both of these images hold a significant symbolism in the case of the Nicaraguan Revolution. We know that this image was used around the world to show the strength and how they fight against the dictatorship and we also know that this image was also used to bring a negative light to this movement, but we mostly remember this image of someone fighting for the right to be free, and while looking at the image that was taken in Ukraine, these are people who are learning and willing to be able to fight for their freedom. Another comparison about photos images is that these are just normal civilians who are trying to make a change as we know in Nicaragua. It was more of the people going against the government and in Ukraine. It's also the people going against the Russian government because they know that their country is in need due to the resources, riding a low and other countries around the world, not willing to help. 
  
  To conclude all these images that I shared, I believe play a very important part in the different aspects of wars, because we're seeing normal people have their lifestyle be altered by war, we have people losing their lives, we have people willing to put their life on the line to defend their country against any wrongdoing.We know in Nicaragua, it was against the dictatorship, and in Ukraine it is stopping Russia from invading due to Putin. These images that I shared from Susan were taken in the 1970s to 1980 which to think was such a long time ago and the ones that I shared about Ukraine that were taken in 2022, which was almost 2 years ago makes it's so outlandish to share how similar they are by being almost a decades apart. It just shows me that people are willing to fight for what they believe in no matter how big or little part they play in these wars/revolutions.