Photographers


version française

James Nachtwey
American photographer


James Nachtwey was born in 1948, and grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from Dartmouth College, where he studied Art History and Political Science (1966-70). Images from the Vietnam War and the American Civil Rights movement had a powerful effect on him and were instrumental in his decision to become a photographer. He has worked aboard ships in the Merchant Marine, and while teaching himself photography, he was an apprentice news film editor and a truck driver.
In 1976 he started work as a newspaper photographer in New Mexico, and in 1980, he moved to New York to begin a career as a freelance magazine photographer. His first foreign assignment was to cover civil strife in Northern Ireland in 1981 during the IRA hunger strike. Since then, Nachtwey has devoted himself to documenting wars, conflicts and critical social issues. He has worked on extensive photographic essays in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza, Israel, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, South Africa, Russia, Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo, Romania, Brazil and the United States. .

Nachtwey has been a contract photographer with Time Magazine since 1984.
He was associated with Black Star from 1980 - 1985 and was a member of Magnum from 1986 until 2001.
In 2001, he became one of the founding members of the photo agency, VII.
He has had solo exhibitions at New York, Paris, Rome …
He has received numerous honours such as Robert Capa Gold Medal (five times), the World Press Photo Award (twice), Magazine Photographer of the Year (seven times) and the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Grant in Humanistic Photography.

Forward of his web site the following sentence :

"I have been a witness, and these pictures aremy testimony.
The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated."


Rwanda, 1994 - Survivor of Hutu death camp.
© James Nachtwey


Zimbabwe, 2000 - In a tuberculosis ward where the great majority of the patients suffer from AIDS
© James Nachtwey


Chechnya, 1996 - Chechen rebel fighting along the front line.
© James Nachtwey



South Africa, 1992 - Xhosa young men in rite of passage.
© James Nachtwey


Guatemala, 1983 - Clergy traveled in military helicopters.
© James Nachtwey


West Bank, 2000 - Palestinians fighting the Israeli army.
© James Nachtwey



Nicaragua, 1984 - Relic of civil war became a monument in a park.
© James Nachtwey


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


Romania, 1990 - An orphanage for incurables
© James Nachtwey


From my point of view, it is the living greatest war reporter and the hero of the DVD "War Photographer ", Swiss film of Christian Frei, filmed in 2002..

 


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The Text and photographs are from James Nachtwey web site.
All texts, photographies and rights associated belong to their respective author
on simple demand, texts or photographs may be suppressed of this web site



Created on December 29, 2007
© Pierre J.