The Necessity of Truth: Censorship in “The Boston Photographs” by Nora Ephron Originally published in 1975, Nora Ephron's essay “The Boston Photographs” is still relevant and controversial almost forty years ago. 'years later. This is the series of three photographs published in newspapers across the country. The most notable one shows a mother and child falling from a collapsed fire escape. Both have outstretched limbs. If both had survived, perhaps the reaction would have been different. The baby survived, miraculously landing on its mother, but the mother ended up dying. The question on everyone's mind was why the photographer, Stanley Forman, had decided to take the photographs instead of trying to help the falling mother and child. According to Ephron, “…the day the Boston photographs appeared, the Washington Post received over seventy calls in protest” (319). The fact that so many people picked up the phone and called shows that there was a justifiable reason for this to happen. Then-Ombudsman Charles Seib of the Post, during the interview, stated of the photographs: "They dramatically conveyed something that had happened, and that's the business we're in. It was news..." (319) . And the question remains, then: what, if anything, should or needs to be censored by the public, especially when it comes to news? Ultimately, Nora Ephron agrees with their publication and the reasons why they were printed instead of censored for the public. I agree with her and believe that we need to find out the tragedy if it happens, and it happens in the world. While not every news story needs to be tragic, even tragic ones have their place in the news, and they are... in the center of the card... a photograph of Carter. Like the Vietnam reference, Carter took this photo, and many others, as a photojournalist to document much of what was happening around the war and apartheid. He did his job well and actually took some “breathtaking photos” of many things, and while many of them would “disturb readers,” in Ephron's words, the work remains necessary and powerful. We need these photos in our lives to show us the truth, reveal the news as accurately as possible, and show us a heartbreaking yet artistic side of both beauty and tragedy and the world. Works Cited Ephron, Norah. "The Boston Photographs." Crazy Salad and Scribble Scribble: Some things about women and notes about the media. New York: Vintage, 2012. Print.Carter, Kevin. Untitled. March 1993. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kevin-Carter-Child-Vulture-Sudan.jpg. Photograph. Online. February 20. 2014.