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ion. The main theoretical approaches to myth construction and to the history of photography have been influenced by rhetoric, sociology, and philosophy
studies. By contrast, this paper analyses how myths underpin war photography to build consensus by a mere visual and perceptual lens. Focusing on iconic
war photographs of the Vietnam and Gulf wars, this study has as aim to explore in depth the reasons why visual and perceptual elements of a photograph
become iconic for a public audience. The hypothesis is that the root of the iconicity in war photography is ascribable toWestern myth visual representations,
based mainly on the Northen European, Greco-Roman, and the Judeo-Christian traditions. Based upon Michael Griffin' s thought, according to which
iconic war photographs persist in the memory of public audience inasmuch related to symbols, the study also draws on the work of Caroline Brothers, Eric
Sandweiss, Susan Moeller,Timothy Fox, Robert Hariman and John Louis Lucaites, expanding visual rethoric studies.The paper presents a qualitative analysis
of the most iconic photographs selected by consulting Time Magazine and Getty Image archives. Drawing on history of art, media and communication
studies, the focus is on photographs of the Vietnam war, relative to classic photojournalism, and the Gulf war, concerning embedded photojournalism.
The analysis is based on differentWestern visual myths, according to the different typologies of photojournalism, with the aim to understand the key factors
that characterize diverse aesthetics of of classic photojournalism and embedded photojournalism.