James Nachtwey
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Photojournalist James Nachtwey (born 1948) is one of today's most influential war photographers.
Nachtwey grew up in Massachusetts, graduating from Leominster High School. He then graduated from Dartmouth College, where he played rugby, and studied Art History and Political Science (1966-70). Influenced by imagery from the Vietnam War and the American Civil Rights movement, he became a self-taught photographer.
After graduating from college, Nachtwey held a series of odd jobs. For much of the time, he worked on merchant ships; it was during this time period that Nachtwey truly fell in love with photography. Later, Nachtwey worked as a truck driver. The skills that Nachtwey acquired in these jobs would later prove useful to him as he navigated the globe in search of news stories.
He started working as a newspaper photographer in 1976 at a small newspaper in New Mexico. In 1980, he moved to New York and began working as a freelance photographer. In 1981, Nachtwey covered his first overseas assignment: The Troubles in Ireland. Nachtwey has documented a variety of armed conflicts and social issues. He spent considerable time in South Africa, has shot iconic images of wars in Latin America, the Middle East, Russia, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and of socio-political issues (pollution, crime and punishment) in Western Europe and the United States. He also made a remarkable series of photographs about the September 11 attacks. Nachtwey has also produced a photo essay on the effects of the war in Sudanon civilians.
Nachtwey has covered the United States invasion of Iraq extensively, and it was during this work that he received his first combat injury. As Nachtwey, along with TIME correspondent Michael Weisskopf rode in the back of a humvee with the US Army Tomb Raiders, an insurgent threw a grenade into the vehicle. Weisskopf, acting on instinct, grabbed the grenade to throw it out of the humvee; a split second later it exploded in his hand. Two soldiers were injured in the explosion, along with the TIME journalists. Nachtwey managed to take several photographs of medic Billie Grimes treating Weisskopf before passing out. Both journalists were airlifted out of Iraq to Germany and later to hospitals in the United States. Nachtwey has recovered sufficiently to return overseas to cover the Tsunami in Southeast Asia of December 26 2004.
To photograph the myriad of situations that he encounters, Nachtwey uses heavy-duty cameras produced by Canon as well as their professional series of lenses. Due to his equipment choice, Nachtwey has appeared in a series of Canon camera advertisements. Currently, he uses a Canon EOS-1Ds digital camera as well as an EOS-1V film camera. To process his digital images, Nachtwey uses a PowerBook G4 laptop in the field and a Power Mac G4 as well as an Epson 2200 large format printer in his studio. VII, the photo agency that Nachtwey works for, requires that all photographers do their own editing, meaning that Nachtwey’s published images are printed almost exactly as he envisioned, even though he shoots digitally. When Nachtwey shoots film, he uses a variety of 35mm emulsions, both color and black and white.
James Nachtwey has been associated with Time Magazine as a contract photographer since 1984. He worked for Black Star from 1980 until 1985 and was a member of Magnum Photos from 1986 until 2001. In 2001, he was a founding member of the photo agency VII.
His photographs have been exhibited throughout Europe and the States; Nachtwey has received numerous prizes and awards for his work. The Swiss documentary War Photographer about his work by director Christian Frei received numerous awards.
External links
- Official website (http://www.jamesnachtwey.com)
- VII photo agency (http://www.viiphoto.com)
- Time.com: Shattered 9/11/2001 (http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/shattered/)
- War Photographer Documentary (http://www.war-photographer.com/)
- Salon.com: James Nachtwey's Inferno (http://dir.salon.com/people/feature/2000/04/10/inferno/index.html)
- Close Up: Five Questions With James Nachtwey (http://www.apple.com/pro/photo/nachtwey/)
- PBS online NewsHour: Conversation with James Nachtwey (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/gergen/jan-june00/nachtwey_5-16.html)de:James Nachtwey