War Photographer

Christian Frei

Nomination Oscar for Best Documentary Feature 2002

“Every minute I was there, I wanted to flee. I did not want to see this. Would I cut and run, or would I deal with the responsibility of being there with camera?” (James Nachtwey). In one of the world’s countless crisis areas, surrounded by suffering, death, violence and chaos, photographer James Nachtwey searches for the picture he thinks he can publish. A movie about a committed, shy man who is considered one of the bravest and most important war photographers of our time – but hardly fits the cliché of the hard-boiled war veteran.

With James Nachtway, Christiane Amanpour, Hans-Hermann Klare, Christiane Breustedt, Denis O'Neill and Des Wright.

"If Frei had just allowed Nachtwey to talk about his experiences for an hour and a half, that probably would've been enough to keep things interesting. But Frei actually follows Nachtwey on the job (he spend two years with the photographer), going so far as to attach a little camera to Nachtwey's lens. As a result of that bizarre innovation, we're able to see exactly what Nachtwey sees when taking a picture. And though it's somewhat silly and occasionally distracting, Frei smartly doesn't overuse the technique. Like his subject, Frei's not afraid to get as close to the action as he needs to (dictated, of course, by Nachtwey). This leads to moments of breathtaking visual splendor, such as a trip to smoke-infested sulfur mines and a train that goes roaring by mere feet from where a woman is preparing a meal."
Reel Film Reviews

"Few options are open to a person who comes within palpable camera range of human suffering, violence, and chaos. One choice is to sound the alarm – to rouse a slumbering planet by thrusting compelling images into their field of vision. These same images have been tormenting and driving Nachtwey for the past 25 years. He doesn’t like what he has seen, and that is why he keeps on looking for it, believing that if he can share his horror, the world will one day do something about it. Ultimately, the WAR PHOTOGRAPHER is an anti-war photographer. "
Judith Gabriel, aljadid

James Nachtwey

American, born 1948

James Nachtwey grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from Dartmouth College, where he studied Art History and Political Science (1966-70). Images from the Vietnam War and the American Civil Rights movement had a powerful effect on him and were instrumental in his decision to become a photographer. He has worked aboard ships in the Merchant Marine, and while teaching himself photography, he was an apprentice news film editor and a truck driver. In 1976 he started work as a newspaper photographer in New Mexico, and in 1980, he moved to New York to begin a career as a freelance magazine photographer. His first foreign assignment was to cover civil strife in Northern Ireland in 1981 during the IRA hunger strike.

Since then, Nachtwey has devoted himself to documenting wars, conflicts and critical social issues. He has worked on extensive photographic essays in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza, Israel, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, South Africa, Russia, Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo, Romania, Brazil and the United States.

Nachtwey has been a contract photographer with Time Magazine since 1984. He was associated with Black Star from 1980 - 1985 and was a member of Magnum from 1986 until 2001. He has had solo exhibitions at the International Center of Photography in New York, the Palazzo Esposizione in Rome, El Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, the Carolinum in Prague, the Hasselblad Center in Sweden, the Canon Gallery and the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, and the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, among others.

He has received numerous honours such as the Robert Capa Gold Medal (five times), the World Press Photo Award twice, Magazine Photographer of the Year (six times), the International Center of Photography Infinity Award three times, the Leica Award twice, the Bayeaux Award for War Correspondents (twice), the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award, the Canon Photo essayist Award and the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Grant in Humanistic Photography. He is a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and has an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Arts.

Why photograph war?

by James Nachtway

There has always been war. War is raging throughout the world at the present moment. And there is little reason to believe that war will cease to exist in the future. As man has become increasingly civilized, his means of destroying his fellow man have become ever more efficient, cruel and devastating.

Is it possible to put an end to a form of human behavior which has existed throughout history by means of photography? The proportions of that notion seem ridiculously out of balance. Yet, that very idea has motivated me.

For me, the strength of photography lies in its ability to evoke a sense of humanity. If war is an attempt to negate humanity, then photography can be perceived as the opposite of war and if it is used well it can be a powerful ingredient in the antidote to war.

In a way, if an individual assumes the risk of placing himself in the middle of a war in order to communicate to the rest of the world what is happening, he is trying to negotiate for peace. Perhaps that is the reason why those in charge of perpetuating a war do not like to have photographers around.

It has occurred to me that if everyone could be there just once to see for themselves what white phosphorous does to the face of a child or what unspeakable pain is caused by the impact of a single bullet or how a jagged piece of shrapnel can rip someone's leg off - if everyone could be there to see for themselves the fear and the grief, just one time, then they would understand that nothing is worth letting things get to the point where that happens to even one person, let alone thousands.

But everyone cannot be there, and that is why photographers go there - to show them, to reach out and grab them and make them stop what they are doing and pay attention to what is going on - to create pictures powerful enough to overcome the diluting effects of the mass media and shake people out of their indifference - to protest and by the strength of that protest to make others protest.

The worst thing is to feel that as a photographer I am benefiting from someone else's tragedy. This idea haunts me. It is something I have to reckon with every day because I know that if I ever allow genuine compassion to be overtaken by personal ambition I will have sold my soul. The stakes are simply too high for me to believe otherwise.

I attempt to become as totally responsible to the subject as I possibly can. The act of being an outsider aiming a camera can be a violation of humanity. The only way I can justify my role is to have respect for the other person's predicament. The extend to which I do that is the extent to which I become accepted by the other, and to that extent I can accept myself.

James Nachtwey

Christian Frei

Born in 1959 in Schönenwerd. Studied Visual Media at the Department of Journalism and Communication at Fribourg University. Since 1984 independent filmmaker and producer. Works regularly for German Swiss Broadcasting Service (SF DRS). 2002 Academy Award Nomination Best Documentary Feature for “War Photographer”.

2009 SPACE TOURISTS
2005 THE GIANT BUDDHAS
2001 WAR PHOTOGRAPHER
2000 BOLLYWOOD IM ALPENRAUSCH - INDISCHE FILMEMACHER EROBERN DIE SCHWEIZ
1998 KLUGE KÖPFE
1997 RICARDO, MIRIAM Y FIDEL
1984 DER RADWECHSEL
1982 FORTFAHREN
1981 DIE STELLVERTRETERIN

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Comments

An amazing insight into the world of one of the World's greatest living photographers. Beautiful.
om-shantiphotography 2008-10-08

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War Photographer