Comments on: Witness

Witness

countzen — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 11:24:26 -0800

"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!)

By: gagglezoomer

gagglezoomer — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 12:00:21 -0800

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."

By: matteo

matteo — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 12:02:17 -0800

Nachtwey's images appear also in VII agency's website

By: Hankins

Hankins — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 12:08:23 -0800

The documentary about Nachtwey, War Photographer, is a great piece. Here's the imdb info.

By: orange swan

orange swan — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 12:10:50 -0800

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.

By: fenriq

fenriq — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 12:24:10 -0800

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.

By: berek

berek — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 12:27:23 -0800

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.

By: alms

alms — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 12:28:58 -0800

Wow. Grandmother cared for young girl affected by HIV.

By: googly

googly — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 12:32:51 -0800

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.

By: naxosaxur

naxosaxur — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 12:42:38 -0800

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...

By: LeeJay

LeeJay — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 13:12:01 -0800

Thank you for the post, countzen. The pictures hit me like a kick to the stomach and I'm still not quite recovered.

By: exhilaration

exhilaration — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 13:15:11 -0800

wow

By: madamjujujive

madamjujujive — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 13:28:05 -0800

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.

By: ..ooOOoo....ooOOoo..

..ooOOoo....ooOOoo.. — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 13:33:15 -0800

FYI, berek's NSFW link is a goatse about half way down.

By: Irontom

Irontom — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 13:41:00 -0800

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.

By: iamck

iamck — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 13:48:32 -0800

fenriq - you're not helping him right now are you?

By: aether1

aether1 — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 14:30:50 -0800

I'd also recommend getting his book "Inferno."

By: blendor

blendor — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 14:55:35 -0800

Such gripping work. How can one man be everywhere like that? I made the single-link post mistake my first time, too.

By: Armitage Shanks

Armitage Shanks — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 16:03:43 -0800

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?

By: indices

indices — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 17:28:28 -0800

thanks for this countzen... one link is worth a thousand words

By: chaz

chaz — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 17:30:40 -0800

great pictures, they're really vivid. I had not seen them, or the site before. Thanks.

By: ericb

ericb — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 17:59:55 -0800

Wow. Great FPP post ... and many other intriguing follow-on posts.

By: quam

quam — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 19:00:54 -0800

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"].

By: scarabic

scarabic — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 19:58:30 -0800

[this is good]

By: SisterHavana

SisterHavana — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 20:23:26 -0800

These are amazing photographs. Very moving. Great find.

By: dejah420

dejah420 — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 20:47:33 -0800

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!

By: schyler523

schyler523 — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 22:34:07 -0800

. [this is sad/good]

By: peacay

peacay — Fri, 25 Mar 2005 03:40:46 -0800

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.

By: twsf

twsf — Fri, 25 Mar 2005 08:03:38 -0800

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.

By: bigbadem

bigbadem — Fri, 25 Mar 2005 09:00:48 -0800

I was absolutely stunned by the similarity of this photograph to this painting.

By: Specklet

Specklet — Fri, 25 Mar 2005 10:29:49 -0800