Christoph Bangert has covered war and conflict in Afghanistan, Iraq and Gaza, often for The New York Times. His recently published book, “War Porn” (Kehrer Verlag), includes many explicit images and delves into questions of morality and censorship in conflict photography. His conversation with James Estrin has been edited.

Q.

Why did you make this book?

A.

I was angry because I had all this material and most of these pictures were never published. I felt I had the obligation to eventually publish them. I believe that it’s not enough to only take these images. You also have to make sure you can publish them in some way, otherwise maybe you shouldn’t take them in the first place.

Q.

Why were most of these photos not published?

A.

Most of these pictures weren’t published because they are gruesome. They show very horrific things and the publications I worked for decided not to run them.

Q.

Why?

A.

Publications have certain rules. A lot of publications don’t show pictures of dead bodies, for example, which I don’t think is a good rule. You have to decide each time and with each picture anew if this is what you want to say and what you want to show or not. I don’t think it is a good idea to have general rules not to show dead bodies or gruesome images.

We should not just blame the media for not showing us how wars really are. That’s too easy. That’s too simple. We should also ask ourselves as viewers: What do we need to see? What do we actually have an obligation to look at? We have great responsibilities as consumers and viewers of images, and we should never forget about this obligation.

Q.

What do we need to see?

That is a very individual thing. I think the problem is that not enough people ask themselves. For too many people this is very passive — kind of like watching TV. But I believe we actively have to pursue the imagery that we should see. We cannot just wait for what comes to us.

Q.

What difference does it make whether I see them or not? What is that going to change?

A.

It’s going to change what you remember.

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We remember in still images and that’s why we as photographers have a great obligation. Also, we as publishers have obligations. If we leave out one aspect of a certain event, people won’t remember it.

Q.

But do you think if we all look at them there won’t be the next war?

A.

Well, that’s not why I take these pictures, to end wars. It would be quite naïve to think that pictures stop or prevent wars. People prevent wars. People stop wars. But also people look at images, so I think images can be one of the many factors that form opinions.

Just imagine if nobody had published pictures of the Holocaust or of the liberation of the Nazi camps. That would mean that it would be very difficult for us to remember these events.

Q.

Why “War Porn”?

A.

In discussions about photography that documents wars, this argument that these pictures are dehumanizing or pornographic always comes up. It’s a legitimate argument because the things that happened to these people are essentially dehumanizing. If a person is tortured to death, that is very dehumanizing.

You can always say that this sort of photography is dehumanizing, but I think it’s too easy to call these pictures pornographic or voyeuristic. If you say it is morally wrong to look at them, you avoid being confronted with these events. This always makes me angry.

I personally don’t think this is war porn. I use the term to undermine this argument. Whatever you want to call it, I photographed these things, and I believe you have to look at it.

Q.

We talked about the porn part. Let’s talk about the war part. Why did you decide to cover war?

A.

There are two main reasons. When you’re young, you’re looking for meaning and you want to have different lives than your parents. You’re really scared of having a boring, meaningless life and you want to go off to war and find meaning. That is the adventure part.

The second part is the classic journalistic idea. You go out and work as a journalist and you document what you see. You inform the people that are not there.

These motivations balance each other out over time. When you are young, you go out for adventure — it’s very exciting to see things other people don’t see. Over time the journalistic idea becomes stronger and you take less risks and you become a better journalist, too.

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Q.

How do you find meaning in war?

A.

War is an extreme experience — the opposite of our ordinary, relatively secure lives in Western society.

A lot of young people feel this sort of emptiness and randomness. By going to war, you get a very basic idea of human nature. You try to do something that is great, and that’s something that is bigger than you.

Q.

When did you start photographing war?

A.

It just gradually happened. When I was at university in Germany I did a very short exchange program with a photography school in Jerusalem. I went to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and I had opportunity to see both sides and to go places that other people couldn’t go. After I finished my studies in photography I went back there for two months and started working.

Q.

When is the first time you saw a dead body?

A.

Maybe 2003 in Rafah in Gaza.

Q.

Is that photo in the book?

A.

Yeah. That was the first one I remember now. A small boy that was killed during fighting between the Israeli Army and the Palestinian fighters.

Q.

Can you tell me about a particular image from Iraq?

A.

The most upsetting one, as a picture and also as an experience, was probably the picture I took of the man who was a victim of sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites in late 2006. That man was kidnapped and tortured and apparently had his throat cut and then was dumped on a pile of trash. Dogs had started to eat the corpse, and I think that’s probably the picture that stayed with me for the longest time.

Q.

And why do you think I should be looking at it?

A.

Because it represents a time in Iraq when there were dozens and dozens of bodies found like this every day in Baghdad. We completely underestimated the civil war between Sunnis and Shiites. Probably what we see today happening in Iraq and Syria with ISIS is exactly a continuation of this civil war.

I’m not saying that you have to look at the photo, but you should at least have the opportunity to look at it. So it’s really up to you to decide if you want to see this.

Q.

Some of these photos were taken for The Times. Who else?

A.

I work for some German magazines and newspapers, but The New York Times was my main client in Iraq and Afghanistan. I’m not saying that we have to publish these images of these horrible events on the front page. This is not just about shocking people. What I’m interested in is to go beyond this shock and find a meaningful way to document and show these events in a comprehensive way.

I do believe we have to get the context right. We have to make sure the viewer has the chance to reflect on what he or she is seeing. That’s the tricky part. To get the context right is absolutely crucial and not at all easy.

View a video on “War Porn’s book display. Follow @JamesEstrin and @nytimesphoto on Twitter. Lens is also on Facebook.