Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/09/27
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]B.D. wrote : >I was struck by a couple things - The first being that Nachtwey eschews >the official war photographer garb for neatly pressed white shirts, >clean, perhaps pressed jeans, and a minimum of gear. He is there to >photograph, not to be photographed while photographing. ;-) Two years ago ,there was a film on ARTE TV about James Nachtwey. A small camera was fixed on the hot shoe of his camera while another cameraman was following him among ruins and bodies. A very interresting link (in French - sorry) at http://www.arte-tv.com/fr/search__results/345380.html. Another at http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0110/nachtwey_intro.htm about 09/11. >The other thing is that there are a number of scenes in which the >subjects are quite clearly playing for the camera. It's not that he is >setting anything up, or indicating how he wants people to act. Rather >it's that they are very aware of his presence and of their role as >subjects. This was particularly true of some of the women in the part in >which bodies were being dug up and apparently identified. And it was >also an evident factor in the scenes on the West Bank. > >Nachtwey does indeed seem very different from Capa in terms of >life-style and demeanor. I agree - I'm now reading "Slighty out of focus" - to sum up it seems that Capa was running between bar, girls, ... and battle fields, a very different view of what appeared in the TV film about Nachtwey who seems to be very "cold". Bernard bernard.degaute@skynet.be