(Photos from http://www.jamesnachtwey.com)
James Nachtwey was born in Syracuse, New York, on the 14th of March in 1948 where he would eventually go study Art History and Political Science at Dartmouth College and finished there in 1970. The photography of Nachtwey that would later shower many rewards such as the Robert Capa Medal, Magazine Photograph of the Year, the Infinity Award, the World Press Photo, and countless more was first inspired from the photography that he saw coming out of the Vietnam War and the American Civil Rights movement. He first started learning photograph while he worked aboard ships and as a truck driver eventually leading him to become an apprentice news editor. Then in 1976 he would finial start his main journalism and photography work for a newspaper in New Mexico and then four years later he would travel to New York to start work as a freelancer photographer. James Nachtwey would then start his work with Time in 1984 and has since been a contractor for them. He would then also become a member of the Black Star phot agency until 1985, join Magnum Photos from 1896 to 2001, and finally in 2001 start his very own photo agency VII (Fundacion Princesa de Asturias). As seen from James Nachtwey’s website Witness Photography by James Nachtwey, James Nachtwey’s career would show him documenting some of the most horrific pictures from conflicts in Afghanistan, to the AIDs epidemic in Africa, to the actions of people in war torn areas, to the famine ravaged areas of the world through the terrifying pictures of men with no fat or muscle on their body, and even most recently he was in New York during 9/11 and took powerful pieces of the World Trade Center while falling and after falling. He spent four decades out in war torn areas or disaster areas trying to show the people the disturbing state that some places of the world are in. He would put his life second in order to capture these photos as seen when he first received his first injury from a combat zone. When he was documenting the United States involvement in Iraq James had a grenade thrown into a military Humvee he was in where a Time employee Michael Weisskopf attempted to throw the grenade out of the vehicle. Ultimately James received his first combat injury from this grenade and was airlifted to Germany and then back to the United States for treatment (Ratnesar 2003). In addition to his amazing photography, Nachtwey has also featured in a documentary War Photographer in which it followed Nachtwey’s life and the work he has done thus also featuring more avenues for people to learn of the terrifying injustices of the world. Additionally, the documentary was nominated in the Academy Awards for best documentary film which gave further publicity to Nachtwey and his photography. James Nachtwey is known as being one of the best war photographers around the world and his imagery will always be there showing the world the dark and sad parts of the world (Fundacion Princesa de Asturias).
References:
Fundacion Princesa de Asturias. Retrieved from http://www.fpa.es/en/princess-of-asturias-awards/laureates/2016-james-nachtwey.html#recurso.
Ratnesar, Romesh, & Weisskopf, Michael. (2003). “Portrait Of A Platoon”. Time. Retrieved from http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1006535-1,00.html.
Witness Photography by James Nachtwey. Retrieved from http://www.jamesnachtwey.com.