Nancy Pham | War Photographer reflection

James Nachtwey is a man of little words.

But he can take one hell of a photograph.

War Photographer depicts the work of this extraordinary man - who still remains a mystery to me - who finds a way to connect his subjects’ emotions with his own so he could accurately portray their life through his lens.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting such a dreary, gloomy film, but at the same time, it was so powerful and eye-opening.

I’ll admit, at first, I thought Nachtwey was being a bit cold because here, you have these women pouring their heart and soul due to a loved one’s death, and Nachtwey was always in the face, not even a foot away, taking photographs.

It, in my opinion, was supposed to be a private moment, but how else are you supposed to capture these peoples’ emotions without getting right in their face? How else are you supposed to tell their story? Nachtwey says that you have to be accepted by the people you’re being photographed to capture all the emotion. If he were to come into a random person’s house, his photographs wouldn’t have the same effect. If you’re going to be a photographer, a war photographer, you have to respect your subject, Nachtwey says. By allowing your subjects to take you in, you have the task of showing the rest of the world what destruction is going on out there. Nachtwey’s photos give the voiceless a voice.

Nachtwey says that “fear is not what’s important;” it’s how you manage it. And whatever fear he has when he witnesses all the evils and misfortunes out there, he manages it quite well.
I find Nachtwey’s dedication to his work remarkable. He’s not just about snapping photos and then leaving the premise. He gets IN on all the action. He surrounds himself with his subjects, so he can understand what is going on. You can’t truly understand what’s going on if you’re 30 feet away.

One prime example shown in the documentary was when a mob chased a man with machetes and ended up murdering him. While all the other cameramen and videographers were watching from a far distance, Nachtwey was in the scene of it all. He ran with the mob. A major issue that journalists find is taking a photo of an act of injustice or preventing the act from happening. Nachtwey does both. Not only does he get great shots of the murder, he tries and begs the mob to not kill the man.

Nachtwey says that his “photographs are only a fraction” of what he’s experienced, and he’s experienced a lot. The way he internalizes everything is incredible. His job may be a bit extreme, but he’s trying to save lives in the process of it.