Chechnya, Ruins of central Grozny.

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Chechnya, Ruins of central Grozny."

Georgina Cannon
6 years ago
Views:

Chechnya, 1996 - Ruins of central Grozny.

1 Chechnya, Ruins of central Grozny. "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-

Chechnya, 1996 - No man' s land between Russian army and Chechen rebels in Grozny.! Common Wealth Award, Martin Luther King Award, Dr.

2 Chechnya, No man' s land between Russian army and Chechen rebels in Grozny.! Common Wealth Award, Martin Luther King Award, Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award, Henry Luce Award, Robert Capa Gold Medal (five times), the World Press Photo Award (twice), Magazine Photographer of the Year (seven 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.

donors and turn the situation around. He said 1.5 million lives were saved. That made it all worthwhile. It means everything to know your work has that kind of impact.

3 donors and turn the situation around. He said 1.5 million lives were saved. That made it all worthwhile. It means everything to know your work has that kind of impact. Sudan, Famine victim in a feeding center.!! While he says it s difficult to gauge the influence of his own work, Nachtwey was gratified when a Red Cross official told him that his photos of the 1992 famine in Somalia, which he d taken on spec and were ultimately published in The New York Times Magazine, helped mobilize donors and turn the situation around. He said 1.5 million lives were saved. That made it all worthwhile. It means everything to know your work has that kind of impact. 3

Somalia, 1992 - Child starved by famine, a man-made weapon of mass

Starvation and disease are the original weapons of mass destruction.

Hundreds of thousands of people were killed by this means in Somalia.

4 Somalia, Child starved by famine, a man-made weapon of mass extermination. Somalia, Famine victim sewn into burial shroud. Starvation and disease are the original weapons of mass destruction. When you burn fields and kill animals, people are left vulnerable. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed by this means in Somalia. Sudan, Famine victim about to receive water in a feeding center.

Rwanda, 1994 - Survivor of Hutu death camp.

5 Rwanda, Survivor of Hutu death camp. "It was an unbelievable genocide," said Nachtwey, "people slaughtered with primitive weapons by their own countrymen at close range. To this day I don't understand it. 1

Romania, 1990 - An orphan in an institution for "incurables".

6 Romania, An orphan in an institution for "incurables". During the question and answer period someone commented that Nachtwey often showed esthetically beautiful compositions of terrible subjects. Nachtwey, who joined Magnum in 1986, said his approach was an homage to Eugene Smith, Joseph Koudelka, Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa. 1!

Romania, 1990 - An orphanage for " incurables".

7 Romania, An orphanage for " incurables". "It shook my faith," he said, "because the reason for these atrocities was politically oriented, the price paid for industrialization in Romania. 1

Bosnia, 1993 - Ethnic cleansing in Mostar.

8 Bosnia, Ethnic cleansing in Mostar. Croat militiaman fires on his Moslem neighbors. "This is a bedroom where he begins and now it has become a battlefield - Nachtwey 1

Afghanistan, 1996 - Mourning a brother killed by a Taliban rocket.

9 Afghanistan, Mourning a brother killed by a Taliban rocket. If you make an honest picture of war, it will be an antiwar photograph. -Nachtwey 2

Afghanistan, 1996 - Ruins of Kabul from civil war. I still think people want to hold a magazine, read a printed page and contemplate it.

10 Afghanistan, Ruins of Kabul from civil war. I still think people want to hold a magazine, read a printed page and contemplate it. Digital interference means that a picture is no longer a photo document but becomes a photo illustration. As journalists we lose our credibility." But, an audience member asked, how is computer manipulation different from dodging and burning? Nachtwey said that he condones darkroom techniques to bring the image closer to what his eye had seen, but he never "plays the hand of God and burns the sky dark. 1

11 When the truth i s spoken, it doesn't need to be adorned. It just needs to be simply stated, and often it only needs to be said once. 2 Alabama, Prisoner on the chain gang. Alabama, Punishment post on the chain gang.

Pakistan, 2001 - A rehab center for heroin addicts.

12 Pakistan, A rehab center for heroin addicts. In the present tense, photography is critical in helping create an atmosphere in which change is possible, not only possible but inevitable it becomes an archive of visual memory, so that we learn from the past and apply its lessons to the future. 4

Bosnia, 1993 - Mourning a soldier killed by Serbs and buried in what was once a football field.

13 Bosnia, Mourning a soldier killed by Serbs and buried in what was once a football field. 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. 4

14 Afghanistan is the world s leading producer of opium poppy. NATO spends tens of millions annually on anti-drug measures to prevent Afghan dope from flooding Moscow, New York and London and profits from filling Taliban war coffers. 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. 4

15 Drug users gather beneath a bridge over an open sewer in Kabul.

16 Many addicts are ex-war refugees who picked up the habit in Iran and Pakistan, or military veterans wrecked by combat and isolation. Many addicts are former refugees from the Soviet occupation in the 1980s or the civil wars that followed; they picked up the habit in camps in Iran and Pakistan. Others are veterans of those wars. They are now being joined by a new generation of addicts traumatized by the current fighting. Many gather to shoot up in the bomb-blasted ruins of Kabul s old town, within view of the presidential palace. 5

17 New York, Ground Zero. In 2001, Nachtwey, along with 6 other photojournalists created their own photo agency VII with this mission statement: What unites VII s work is a sense that, in the act of communication at the very least, all is not lost; the seeds of hope and resolution 6 inform even the darkest records of inhumanity; reparation is always possible; despair is never absolute. in 2011 Nachtwey decided to leave VII saying that I disassociated from 7the agency as a photographer. His photography business is now being conducted through his own business.

18 Citations Nachtwey, James. Ruins of central Grozny James Nacthwey. Web. 3 Nov Nachtwey, James. No man s land between Russian army and Chechen rebels in Grozny James Nacthwey. Web. 3 Nov Nachtwey, James. Famine victim in a feeding center James Nachtwey. Web. 3 Nov Nachtwey, James. Child starved by famine, a man-made weapon of mass-extermination James Nachtwey. Web. 3 Nov Nachtwey, James. Famine victim sewn into burial shroud James Nachtwey. Web. 3 Nov Nachtwey, James. Famine victim about to receive water in a feeding center James Nachtwey. Web. 3 Nov Nachtwey, James. Survivor of Hutu death camp James Nachtwey. Web. 3 Nov Nachtwey, James. An orphan institution for incurables James Nachtwey. Web. 3 Nov Nachtwey, James. An orphanage for incurables James Nachtwey. Web. 3 Nov Nachtwey, James. Ethnic cleansing in Mostar. Croat militiaman fires on his Moslem neighbors James Nachtwey. Web. 3 Nov Nachtwey, James. Mourning a brother killed by a Taliban rocket James Nachtwey. Web. 3 Nov Nachtwey, James. Ruins of Kabul from civil war James Nachtwey. Web. 3 Nov Nachtwey, James. Prisoner on the chain gang James Nachtwey. Web. 3 Nov Nachtwey, James. Punishment post on the chain gang James Nachtwey. Web. 3 Nov Nachtwey, James. A rehab center for heroine addicts James Nachtwey. Web. 3 Nov Nachtwey, James. Mourning a soldier killed by Serbs and buried in what was once a football field James Nachtwey. Web. 3 Nov Nachtwey, James. Untitled Tine. Time Lightbox. Web. 3 Nov Nachtwey, James. Untitled Tine. Time Lightbox. Web. 3 Nov Nachtwey, James. Untitled Tine. Time Lightbox. Web. 3 Nov Nachtwey, James. Ground Zero James Nachtwey. Web. 3 Nov 2013.!

Citations 1 Smith, Rosalind Hughes, Holly Stuart. "James Nachtwey Addressed P.R.C." Photo District News 16.3 (1996): 116. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 3 Nov. 2013. 2 Fussman, Cal. "James Nachtwey." Esquire 144.

19 Citations 1 Smith, Rosalind Hughes, Holly Stuart. "James Nachtwey Addressed P.R.C." Photo District News 16.3 (1996): 116. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 3 Nov Fussman, Cal. "James Nachtwey." Esquire (2005): 206. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 3 Nov Barber, Bonnie. Photographer James Nachtwey 70 Awarded the Dresden International Peace Prize. Dartmouth. Dartmouth Now. 9 Feb Web. 3 Nov Chalifour, Bruno. "On James Natchwey And VII: From Inferno To War: A Few Considerations On James Natchwey, VII, And War Photography." Afterimage 31.6 (2004): 4-5. Art Source. Web. 3 Nov Motlagh, Jason. Addiction in Afghanistan by James Nachtwey. Time. Time Lightbox. 3 May Web. 3 Nov Faliis, Greg. James Nachtwey. Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon with Greg Fallis. n.d. Web. 3 Nov Hughes, Holly. Nachtwy has left VII Photo; Agency Prepares for Expansion. PDN. PDN Pulse. 29 Aug Nov. 2013

Courtesy of Ben Steele

Courtesy of Ben Steele n the summer of 1940, 22-year-old Ben Steele was working the sheep camps outside of his hometown of Billings, Mont. As a jack-of-all-trades, Steele was living the life he loved on the Montana plains he