Ogrish and Gore: A Glimpse into the Grim Realities of Violence

Generally, when we hear about terrible things, we hear them reported on television. We hear that six people died in a car bomb attack in Iraq or an American journalist was beheaded. But we don't SEE what happens. The violence, the blood, and the gore is deemed to graphic for the general public to view on national television. And there is some wisdom in that assessment. Children should not under any circumstances have to view blood and gore in prime time. However, when a nation has become increasingly sanitized and detached from the violence of war and civil strife, perhaps a news outlet is needed in order to bring them back to the grim reality in some corners of the globe. Ogrish was a news website that specialized in delivering gore to America in an unflinching way that would turn anyone's stomach and mind away from violence.

Ogrish was a website conceived several years ago as a way to introduce to the public images and videos that were normally withheld from them by mainstream news networks. The site accepted submissions of photography and video taken by amateurs who were witness to crime, battles, or other incidents of gore, death, and violence. Ogrish did not censor any of its images and thus gained notoriety as an obscene and disgusting website whose purpose was a glorification of violence rather than a denouncement of it.