Mike Johnston responds to a comment about a daguerreotype of 9/11 that questions the photo’s morality. Interesting read.
The source of the reaction seems simple: ordinary viewers know that to take a photograph you have to be proximate to your subject. Thus, they know that the photographers were "there." And if they were there, the logic seems to go, they should have acted to change the situation, somehow. (It’s partially a wishful "I" statement on the part of the viewer, to wit: "If I had been there, I would have taken action.")
Check it out at The Online Photographer