James Nachtwey is one of the most renown documentary photographers working today. A photographer possessed of an almost monastic humble attitude and work ethic he, in his own words, has been a 'witness' leaving his pictures to bear 'testomony' to that which he has seen. From Kabul to Kosovo, 911 to Industrial Pollution Nachtwey has been a chronicler of mans' largely destructive social interaction with his environment and fellow man. As a war photographer few adhere to that genre's father Robert Capa's dictum of "if your photographs aren't good enough, you're not close enough"quite so strongly as Nachtwey. He himself describes his 'closeness' as being “in the same intimate space that the subjects inhabit,”. However he is, as one of his colleagues has warned, close to falling into another very dangerous zone inhabited 'by either photojournalists on their first assignment' or those who 'have been at it too long and think they're bullet proof', he is as his colleague points out in the documentary film War Photographer in danger of being hit.A photographer with such social conscience and integrity is both humbling and inspiring, to see a photographer working in that most frightening of arenas, war photography, stay so true to his belief in the transformative power of the medium. James Nachtwey educates those who cannot bear witness, and possibly illuminates us, as viewers and participators, in his work and on his journeys, as to what is taking place beyond our horizons which we might, through our furthered knowledge, help to put a stop to.
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| copyright. James Nachtwey http://www.jamesnachtwey.com/ |
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