War Photographer

War Photographer--

I just realized that my post never posted for whatever reason...


This film was very eye-opening for me. We see it everywhere, the news, magazines, newspapers. The war is everywhere, you flip through a magazine and you see the pictures, but most of the time, lets be honest, we normally skip right through. We don't look at them. We don't see them, we try to ignore it. It is important to note the work that goes into getting these "simple" photographs that we surely take for granted. People put their lives at risk.

What I find important about Natchwey's work is that he finds the "truth" in war. He shows what the television dares to not show. What I found amazing about him as a person is that he gets right in the middle of all the action and his prescence seems invisible almost. The people around him in these situations are so accepting, so unknowing of his prescence, he meshes with the people. His friends even said that he has been hurt many times, but it doesn't seem to phase him, he even said he didn't know what he does what he does, he just does it because someone has to.

The film begins with words I clearly remember, "If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough," this is Natchwey's goal, to produce excellent, close-up pictures of real-life happenings. The work that he does in countries well-priveledged than ours is something that should really be focused on more. The story he captured about the one family that lived right next to the railroad tracks was the most memorable for me. The family came together even though they literally had nothing. The father lost a leg and an arm, and yet he loved his children, this is captured in Natchwey's photographs perfectly, without thought. He is bathing his children in the water and Natchwey is right there with them in this seemingly private moment, it's beautiful.

Like I mentioned, the film was very touching to me and helped me with the portrait assignment, and hopefully all my future work, you have to get close to the action if your pictures are not what you want them to be. You have to become part of the scene, and this is what makes Natchwey so unique.