Witness

March 24, 2005 11:24 AM

Witness"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- (First post, I don't know if this is a re-post, if so--sorry!)
posted by countzen (30 comments total)

Those are some incredibly powerful pictures. I reccommend going through them in order; when you get to 9/11 you won't be able to distinguish the U.S. as one of the only 'advanced' countries in the set. My favorite was "Packistan-Heroin."
posted by gagglezoomer at 12:00 PM on March 24, 2005

Nachtwey's images appear also in VII agency's website
posted by matteo at 12:02 PM on March 24, 2005

The documentary about Nachtwey, War Photographer, is a great piece. Here's the imdb info.
posted by Hankins at 12:08 PM on March 24, 2005

News photography is a job I could never do - I would want to put down the camera and help instead of documenting the misery of others - but I'm glad someone does it.
posted by orange swan at 12:10 PM on March 24, 2005

orange swan, I am right there with you. I couldn't take a picture of that nearly skeletal famine victim crawling back to his tent without having to stop and help him.

There are some aspects to these pictures that are really, really disturbing. And not just for the imagery.
posted by fenriq at 12:24 PM on March 24, 2005

There are others who have borne witness to the inexorable march ot history, including third world like human rights violations here in America. There are scary ways of bearing witness and ways that are NSFW.
There are even movies both lame and inspirational.

No point to this except to illustrate just how easy it is to avoid a single link FPP.

Yes, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
posted by berek at 12:27 PM on March 24, 2005

Wow. Grandmother cared for young girl affected by HIV.
posted by alms at 12:28 PM on March 24, 2005

I second the recommendation for War Photographer. Its an incredibly powerful movie, which features footage of Nachtway in a number of settings, including work he did with a family living on pallets in the space between train tracks in a Jakarta slum; and a Javaness sulfur mine billowing huge clouds of toxic gas. It manages to convey Nachtway's courage and passion without turning into a hagiography - indeed, it paints him as a rather strange, asocial man.
posted by googly at 12:32 PM on March 24, 2005

I'm with berek, but i'm not going to start a meta thread on this. This post makes me cranky: Nachtwey's photography opens a spectrum of dialogue on myriad issues: war photography, remembrance, memorialization, bearing witness, historical trauma, and countless traumatic events that Nachtwey documents...etc. It'd be nice to see more than just a link to the artist's homepage. Natchtwey is not obscure; he's been around for ages.

/vexed because issues of remembrance and commemoration are highly significant to me...
posted by naxosaxur at 12:42 PM on March 24, 2005

Thank you for the post, countzen. The pictures hit me like a kick to the stomach and I'm still not quite recovered.
posted by LeeJay at 1:12 PM on March 24, 2005

wow
posted by exhilaration at 1:15 PM on March 24, 2005

Thanks, countzen - good link. I just can't fathom the courage it takes for these war photographers to do their jobs, but thank goodness they do. I am sure many remember that Nachtwey and a Time reporter were wounded in Iraq in 2003. Fortunately, he survived, unlike another war photographer I admired.

berek, there is nothing wrong with a single link post. Posts don't need to be essays. The intent of this post was to focus on one photographer's work. Although it's nice when people add links in thread, as you and others have done.
posted by madamjujujive at 1:28 PM on March 24, 2005

FYI, berek's NSFW link is a goatse about half way down.
posted by ..ooOOoo....ooOOoo.. at 1:33 PM on March 24, 2005

countzen

Please do ignore all these whiny jackasses and their bitching about single link posts. As a matter of fact, keep it up. If you make them cranky enough, maybe they'll go away.

Thanks for the good post. You've got nothing to apologize for.
posted by Irontom at 1:41 PM on March 24, 2005

fenriq -

you're not helping him right now are you?
posted by iamck at 1:48 PM on March 24, 2005

I'd also recommend getting his book "Inferno."
posted by aether1 at 2:30 PM on March 24, 2005

Such gripping work. How can one man be everywhere like that?

I made the single-link post mistake my first time, too.
posted by blendor at 2:55 PM on March 24, 2005

Great post, thanks.

No point to this except to illustrate just how easy it is to avoid a single link FPP.

No point indeed. Why would I want to wade through a bunch of irrelevant links to get to the one he posted?
posted by Armitage Shanks at 4:03 PM on March 24, 2005

thanks for this countzen... one link is worth a thousand words
posted by indices at 5:28 PM on March 24, 2005

great pictures, they're really vivid. I had not seen them, or the site before. Thanks.
posted by chaz at 5:30 PM on March 24, 2005

Wow. Great FPP post ... and many other intriguing follow-on posts.
posted by ericb at 5:59 PM on March 24, 2005

Tragedy is well communicated in these photographs and I found myself clicking the back button to revisit this one ["famine victim in a feeding center"].
posted by quam at 7:00 PM on March 24, 2005

[this is good]
posted by scarabic at 7:58 PM on March 24, 2005

These are amazing photographs. Very moving. Great find.
posted by SisterHavana at 8:23 PM on March 24, 2005

I'm just astounded by his mastery of light...he's an amazing photographer. Thanks for the link. And all the subsequent linky goodness. Yay!
posted by dejah420 at 8:47 PM on March 24, 2005

.

[this is sad/good]
posted by schyler523 at 10:34 PM on March 24, 2005

Thanks countzen ... I'd never heard of the photographer.

The pictures are so evocative they hardly needed descriptive labels underneath. There was certainly enough there without need for FPP secondary links.
The emaciated fellow crawling in the feeding camp was astonishing and nearly unbelieveable. I'm in awe of the photographer and bewildered by the humanity he's documented.
posted by peacay at 3:40 AM on March 25, 2005

Several years ago I saw him speak at the UC Berkeley journalism school, and he introduced himself as "an *anti*-war photographer." His demeanor was that of a pastor or monk - very dignified, serious, thoughtful. He presented a 20 minute slide presentation of images, with only the sparest commentary. When the lights came up there were tears in most everyone's eyes.
posted by twsf at 8:03 AM on March 25, 2005

I was absolutely stunned by the similarity of this photograph to this painting.
posted by bigbadem at 9:00 AM on March 25, 2005

.
posted by Specklet at 10:29 AM on March 25, 2005