Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/09/27

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Subject: [Leica] "The Death of Eddie Adams, The Death of War
From: bernard.degaute at skynet.be (Bernard Degaute)
Date: Mon Sep 27 06:30:31 2004

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



Replies: Reply from bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen) ([Leica] "The Death of Eddie Adams, The Death of War)