[Leica] James Nachtwey/Inferno presentation at UCSF.

[George Hartzell <hartzell@cs.berkeley.edu>]

I was lucky enough to be able to get over to the James Nachtwey
presentation at UCSF/Laurel Heights last night.  I'm very glad I went.

I've spent 20-30 minutes pouring over Inferno at a couple of local
shops over the past week and find it amazing.  The content is
unbelievably powerful, the composition and technical details are spot
on, and the printing/publishing are amazing.

Much to my surprise, the projected images were less powerful than book
versions.  His running narrative more than made up for it though.

Some of the points that he made included:

  - He and the publisher recognized that Inferno wasn't ever going to
    be a commercial undertaking, and that they were more interested in 
    producing something which would have a lasting effect.  He was
    amazed and grateful for Phaidon's support.

  - They've sent copies to many world leaders and gotten great
    feedback from them.

  - Re: his purpose (in job and presumably life), it is "important to
    be a witness".

  - Re: a photo looking down into a Rwandan mass grave, he stood on
    the edge, looked down and it "looked like the gates of hell".

  - Re: a photo of a young boy who'd lost both legs above the knee:
    "one of the accomplishments of one of the most powerful armies in
    the world". (Chechnya, and the Russian army)

  - in response to a question about how he managed to catch the
    decisive moments, how often could he plan them, how often did he
    just catch them on the fly:

        We do a dance with time, a dance with chaos, a dance with
        things beyond our control.

All in all, a great way to spend an evening.

g.