War Photographer

This was an amazing documentary in my opinion. It evoked a number of emotions for me as the viewer and gave me insight into the world of war photography, something I had not known very little about beyond various images that I've seen from the news or from old publications of earlier wars. Images like those did not strike me as much as Nachtwey's photographs did. In seeing and hearing Nachtwey's story of his career and life as a war photographer, I felt compassion, anger, fear, and sadness, among other things, for the people in his photographs and the turmoil and struggles they faced in such conflicted situations.

What struck me about Nachtwey as a photographer was his ability to jump right into the middle of violent situations, putting himself in danger of being physically harmed or even killed, and remain completely calm and in control of himself mentally in the midst of chaos. Other war photographers put more importance on keeping themselves out of physical danger by shooting from afar, atop of a building or in some other fairly protected area, and end up with images that document the event from a viewer's standpoint; however, Nachtwey's photographs show not only a documentation of the situation, but a completely personal interaction with the people involved and a direct engagement of the photographer as an integral part of the situation with the environment. To me, this is something that goes far beyond just photographing a war. Nachtwey makes himself part of the action, and thus ends up with dramatic and stunning photographs that make the viewer feel what he might have felt at the particular moments when he took the images.

Another aspect of Nachtwey's photography that intrigued me was his understanding of what it takes to be able to photograph people at their most emotionally extreme moments in such desperate times. He spoke of a certain calm and mature attitude that he must possess as a photographer in seeking to photograph people that will let them know that he has respect for them and the things they are going through. When he photographed the family of the man who had lost his arm and leg in a train accident, he didn't act just as a photographer who wanted to get amazing images for his own benefit, but rather he introduced himself and spent a good amount of time with them, photographing their ways of life living in on scrap materials in a ditch in between two train tracks. He developed a certain understanding with them that his photographs would give them a chance to be seen and heard in the world. All of Nachtwey's work seemed to play out in this manner. His subjects knew they would have a chance to tell their story through his photographs, in such a way that might not otherwise be possible to do in some situations.

This documentary inspired me to think a lot about how photography is not just a way to document what you see, but it is a medium through which a photographer can communicate how they relate themselves to the world and emotions they feel from their experiences.