James Nachtwey video response

The film on James Nachtwey was one of the most interesting and personal photography interview’s I’ve ever seen. You really get to dive into Nachtwey’s life and personality, which gives the viewer an understanding of the true meaning and driving force behind his work. Nachtwey is a photojournalist for TIME magazine, and has been taking photographs at some of the most dangerous places on earth, at the most dangerous time. In the beginning of the film, you see the editors for a specific magazine, going over Nachtwey’s photographs, and trying to decide which ones are suitable for entering the magazine. One of the main things that the editor’s were looking for was “grief and sorrow” in the photographs, so anything that made them feel horrible, was a great picture. For example, the editors decided to pick the photo of the pile of dead bodies being dumped, over the image of a disaster-stricken community. Nachtwey likes to go right into the action with his photography, which means that he actually goes into villages during war, places of extreme illness and death and many more. From this Nachtwey says that he has had Malaria over 12 times, and has been injured several times as well. Even photojournalist’s right next to him have gotten killed during some of his photo trips. One point of the film that I found interesting was how a friend photographer of his said something along the lines of “for this type of photography, it’s really only a small fraction of what you’ve seen, so I wonder what he does with all that emotion?” With this though, Nachtwey said that he thinks’ that no one else should have to witness the tragedies and hardships that he’s witnessed, and that he’s literally become so conditioned to it that he wants his photographs to help change those hardships. I think that for a photojournalist, or any photographer at that matter, this is a beautiful way to look at and explore photography, but also a really dangerous way. Every trip that Nachtwey takes to different places, like Afghanistan, Bosnia, India, Israel, Pakistan, even New York with 9-11-01, is a trip that could be his last. He documents things like AIDS, war times, Rwanda, even Heroin addicts and famines. One other statement that I thought was interesting was when Nachtwey said that photographing some of these events was like “taking the express elevator to hell.” That’s a pretty strong statement for photographs, but very understandable with the situations that he puts himself into. I also liked how Nachtwey said that the only way he’s even able to photograph these people is because the people have accepted him, in whatever way it was, through conversation or just personal encounter in general, the people have accepted him at that moment, and his photographs are a way of telling that story. I don’t think anyone else could have photographs like James Nachtwey’s. The fact that he goes so deep into the lives and realms of these people and events, and tells that story through photographs, may even sound a bit exploitative to some. Is it right or wrong to go into villages and towns, and showcase the famine and disaster that has gone on there? I think that Nachtwey’s photographs are a way of being able to tell people who won’t ever have the chance to go into the situations and events that he put’s himself into, a story of the disaster and tragedy that’s going on there.