James Nachtway: A Response to War Photography

The movie we watched was very interesting. It showed the importance of James Nachtwey and his photography. War photography is a particularly hard field of study because of the scenes you are faced with. As we talked about in class, it is hard to decide when you are in that situation whether or not to help someone or to take the picture. Photographers are often seen as heartless when they simply become bystanders and cameramen but in reality they are doing so much more. War time photographers like Nachtway open the public's eyes to what is truly happening in the world. They speak the truth, in a sense by shooting us the images of what is happening in other parts of the world. They are there to bear witness and to speak for those who cannot. This movie really opened my eyes to how influential photographers are and how some even put themselves in danger in order to show the truth. I really enjoyed this film because it showed why we need war photographers and how much effort and trouble they go through to get their messages across. It really opened my eyes to all of the horrible things that happen around the world everyday and how informative Nachtway is and how important his work is.

One of the most haunting images I found from James Nachtway is the one pictured above. This is of someone who survived the genocide in Rwanda between the Hutu who were killing all of the Tutsis
, trying to make them extinct from the country. This stuck out to me because we learned about it last year in history and learned it was one of the most brutal genocides to ever occur. People were killed in sadistic ways with swords and knives. Yet, interestingly enough it did not get much coverage outside of the country besides the neighboring countries and partially brought to the UN, who could do nothing to help the people. This picture needed to be taken, it needed to show the brutality that went on in that country, and that someone should have been paying attention and trying to help.

The next image shown above particularly disturbs me. This is a child soldier of the Congo holding a gun up, as if it were a toy, towards the camera. Its not just the gun that disturbs me, but the look in the child's eyes, the small smile formed on his small face. The fact that this looks like something that happens every day there, thats what disturbs me. This is a magnificent image, don't get me wrong, but it makes my skin crawl at the same time.