Burning Monk
The photo was taken in Vietnam in the June 1963 by Malcom Browne, in the Vietnamese city of Saigon (Now Ho Chi Minh City). It is of a monk called Thich Quang Duc getting set on fire by two other monks nearby. This was an act of protests by Buddhists because of the bad treatment to monks during the Vietnam war. The bad treatment against Monks started when a shooting happened of nine unarmed civilians known as the Huế Phật Đản shootings. In the city of Huế, they were protesting a ban of the Buddhist flag and were shot at by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. This sparked Buddhists around the country to start protesting against the ban of flying the Buddhist flag and some protests took extreme means of protest.
The main subject of the image is at the centre of the frame. The photo is also captured quite a bit far back from him, and we see him in a high angle. This throws the viewer off because the human eye is used to seeing things on the lines on the rule of thirds. There is also a use of a blank, negative space on the left side of the screen. But there is a container filled with petrol there that is brightly coloured, drawing the audience’s attention to the gas can. This gives us a general idea of what has happened to the man, as he can being next to him connotates that it’s a self-inflicted event. The pylon and the pole in the background behind the car could act as leading lines in the image, as they are pointing down towards the man and also place him at the centre of the frame. They also help us see him, as they point below the horizon line where the monk is situated. The fire adds a bright contrast to the image. There is dark smoke surrounding the fire, and the fire has smoke around it adding to the contrast difference.
The image has a high shutter speed as there would have been quite a lot of motion as there are people walking in the background and there are fast moving flames where the monk is on fire. The high shutter speed was also restricting the amount of light getting into the camera from the fire, so the image wouldn’t be over-exposed. The fire would have also provided enough light for the aperture to not be fully opened, as this would have let too much light into the lens. The ISO may have been slightly up, as there is some colour noise present in the darker parts of the image. For example, in the shadows of the other monks on the left side of the image. The photo is probably very warm in terms of white balance as the sky is brighter and there is also fire in the centre of the image.
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