"I have been a witness, and these pictures are
my testimony. The events I have recorded should
not be forgotten and must not be repeated."
-James Nachtwey-
***Update 5/26/2010
Okay, I was able to watch until the 60th minute. I can't write that much now so I'll just sum it up. I realized that for one to be a successful War Photographer, one must really sacrifice a lot... his social life, his 'sanity', his life, in order to be able to take that one photo which can tell the world what is really happening, and hopefully, open their eyes.
One guy there said, there are two kinds of people who die during assignments, the ones on their first assignment, and the ones who've been in the business for so long that they think they are bullet proof. He continued by saying that James was already part of the second category.. Hopefully he doesn't cross over any time soon.
Watch out for the next update.
Okay, so right now, I have started watching War Photographer the Documentary which features James Nachtwey. There has always been a question that would always run on my mind when every war photography would come up. "How do they keep themselves sane?" With all the death, blood, and pain, how can they?
My friend Hannah Reyes, who's currently an intern in European Press Photo Agency, a photography/photo journalist company here in the Philippines, told me that her talks with various war photographers have yielded a very unexpected answer.
They dance to ringtones, and do silly things to keep focused and remove the shock that they get on the spot. I can't remember the exact words but it was something on the lines of what I said.
One dream, I'm not sure if you can even call it a dream, is to be a war photographer, to drop everything and risk life and limb to be able to put in film what most of us can only see on tv, or hear from stories.
It's putting your life on the line to show the truth behind the gruesome event in our world called war.
Although I'm scared that I might not be able to handle the scene that's happening right infront of my eyes.
Anyway, I haven't finished watching it yet. I will add to this later, or tomorrow.
For now, I wanna say that James Nachtwey is indeed a mystery.
***Update 5/26/2010
Okay, I was able to watch until the 60th minute. I can't write that much now so I'll just sum it up. I realized that for one to be a successful War Photographer, one must really sacrifice a lot... his social life, his 'sanity', his life, in order to be able to take that one photo which can tell the world what is really happening, and hopefully, open their eyes.
One guy there said, there are two kinds of people who die during assignments, the ones on their first assignment, and the ones who've been in the business for so long that they think they are bullet proof. He continued by saying that James was already part of the second category.. Hopefully he doesn't cross over any time soon.
Watch out for the next update.
Check out Hannah Reyes' Tumblr for more photos, or click her name up top.
Check out James Nachtwey's photos in his website - http://www.jamesnachtwey.com/
Check out James Nachtwey's photos in his website - http://www.jamesnachtwey.com/
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