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1/12/2007 8pm 第四次讀書會 ﹣ James Nachtwey
 將由林樂群老師介紹美國著名的戰爭攝影家 James Nachtwey (b. 1948)。現場主要播出九十六分鐘的 DVD - War Photographer (2001)。James Nachtwey 從事戰爭攝影已經二十年，紀錄最殘酷真實的人生經驗。"His Work includes dramatic and shocking images of human suffering in Rwanda, Somalia, Romania, Bosnia, Zaire, Chechnya and India, a well as photographs of the conflict in Kosovo."
他稱自己是反戰的攝影家，對於拍攝對象有強烈的同情心而較少的批評。他的攝影比一般的政治宣言更有力。他深入危險之地，在混亂的戰爭場景裡，以他的冷靜與精準構圖，描述戰爭罪行(war-crime)帶來的死亡、貧窮、災難、破壞、恐怖、苦痛。他的攝影能令觀眾產生複雜情緒：憤怒、恐懼、悲傷 ﹣試圖理解這些事情如何發生。甚至能令觀眾自省或自責：為什麼沒有人阻止這類事情的發生？為什麼“我”無能為力？“我”應該站出來做些事情幫助改善世界。因此有人建議，他應得諾貝爾和平獎。有興趣者請進一步參考攝影書："Inferno", "Magnum Degrees"
James Nachtwey 大學時主修政治學與藝術史。1984他成為Time雜誌的攝影家。1980 - 1985 Black Star。1986 ﹣ 2001 Magnum。2001成立 the photo agency, VII, (New York, Paris)。他得到許多國際攝影大獎，他從麻州藝術學院得到榮譽藝術博士學位(an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Arts).
Awards:
2006 Heinz Foundation Achievement Award， 2007 TED Prize，The Common Wealth Award, Martin Luther King Award, Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award, Henry Luce Award, Robert Capa Gold Medal (five times), the World Press Photo Award (twice), Magazine Photographer of the Year (seven times), the International Center of Photography Infinity Award (three times), the Leica Award (twice), the Bayeaux Award for War Correspondents (twice), the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award, the Canon Photo essayist Award and the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Grant in Humanistic Photography. He is a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society.
Amazon.com:
His photos describe brutally abused Romanian orphans, Rwandan genocide victims, a rat-hunter family of Indian Untouchables barbecuing dinner, skeletal dehydration victims in Sudan, the miserable in Bosnia, Chechnya, Zaire, Somalia, and Kosovo--are excruciating to look at, yet impossible to tear your eyes away from. Nachtwey's photographs make us capable of imagining that it could have happened to us. They are hard to forget, or forgive.
His work is also a masterpiece in strictly aesthetic terms. The power of Nachtwey's images transcends journalism. Bloody handprints on a living-room wall in Kosovo, the ghostly imprint of a Serb victim's vanished body on a floor, a Hutu with crazed eyes displaying the machete gashes he received for opposing the Tutsis' butchery, a howling orphan in a crib, one eye contracted in anger--these are compositions that depend, like Goya's, on the artist's skill as much as the subject's legitimate claim on our conscience.
If you have the courage to look at these photos then you have the courage to say we've learned nothing from history, all the countless books and films and discussions,seminars and the millions in erecting museums have meant nothing. Why? It seems we don't care if children are hacked to death,or we allow whole nations of people to starve,or be tortured, to withstand humiliation being the victims of the new globalization schemes of the world's power brokers. Nachtwey allows his truthful images to speak for themselves,from the barren lands,the forsaken lands of the world that god has forgotten about. Somalia,Sudan,Rwanda,India,Bosnia,Chechyna,but it really doesn't matter where this occurs, the fact that it does right now, everyday.
On artistic terms as others here have said these photos transcend the artistic frame, and given a forever deeper meaning to what art can express of the human spirit. These images also speak of the past, asking the pathetic question where have we come, or does anyone care. Having met James and briefly discussing his work, only makes me appreciate the book that much more. When I asked him why he did what he did and why he risked life and limb to capture some of these images, he simply replied "People have got to know."
When I first looked at Inferno by James Nachtwey it was hard to believe what I was looking at. The images of the harsh and inhumane conditions in which Romanian ophanes are kept, the starving and impoverished people of Somalia, the battlegrounds and devastion of Bosnia and Chechyna, the social and economic divisions in India, and the terrible images of Rwanda that defy human comprehension. Nachtwey combines amazing artistic abilities that remain in one's mind with the raw and unrefined images of the harshest places in the world.
To look at Nachtwey's pictures is more than just looking, but experiencing. When looking at these pictures you experience an intense mixture of emotions from anger, fear, sadness, and struggling to grasp how this acts could be done. Inferno is a book that everyone needs to both read and see to truely begin to understand what is going on in the world. With this book/pictorial, it becomes quite clear, that yes indeed, a picture is worth a thousand words or more.... Each picture means more than any news report or article you've ever read... You see the evil in the world with a clarity rarely shown in few other works of media... When you look at these pictures, tears of anguish, tears of a simmering anger begin to well in your eyes... the question we all must ask ourselves, "How can we let this happen? and why does it happen?" No one should ever suffer like those people suffer in this book, and it is heartbreaking and disheartning to realize that so many Americans and others don't really give a darn enough to stand up and do something...
Each photograph in this book shows a heart-breaking human tragedy that completely personalises the horror and thereby forces us to become emotionally involved with those who suffer. This book should be in every public library. I'm not really reviewing this book, I'm reviewing myself, my reaction to the book. Because there is nothing that is not perfect about this book. It's stunning. Dazzling. The only thing that's wrong is my reaction to this book. I wish I could make myself read part of it every day, because I know that if I don't look at at least one picture, I'll forget the books entire impact. I have that ability, to just wipe sad things from my mind. That's probably the sickness that grasps the American people as a whole: the ability to just forget, no matter what they've been shown.
They can just forget, and go on living as if each day in the safest country on earth were an adventure. But if I do read this book, I go insane. I'm infused with an unquenchable desire to DO something. Doesn't matter what. I'm that way, too. I need to fill the void that these pictures create in me with action. But what can I do? That is my mantra. What can I do for thousands starving, being beaten, sufering at the hands of others, nature, themselves. The answer is nothing. I can do nothing. I want to apologize to every person in this book for my uselessness. I as an individual can do nothing. But I as a group can do a lot. I as a group of people can accomplish anything, and I think that as well every time I read this book. I think that if I were part of a group, I would be able to help. So I want to apologize for not being part of a group yet. I'm sorry I can do nothing, yet.
A book that is not for everyone, yet everyone should see it. These are the faces of death and despair, the tears of anti-war, the bravery of war, the fear of not living another day, the fear of living yet another day...the courage, the persistance, the failure to give up...the hurt, the pain, the tears, the anger..in the lives that nightmares are made of... When you look at the photographs, you will never be the same. Study them. Let them go to your heart. Cry for them. Then reach out to them. And never, never forget......when I went into the Inferno, I never realized the impact it would have. We can be so distant to the people, but in this book...they come into our lives, making us aware that the world can be a living hell. James Nachtwey did a fantastic job catching the lives that we so often want to pretend don't exist. I highly recommend this book to all. Step into the fire. We all need to see........
James Nachtwey succeeds in making the people who read the book witnesses also. So that we can never again say that we didn't know this was happening. And by making us witnesses, he obliges us not to turn our backs to the Inferno that too many parts of the world still are. But however shocking these photo's are, love and compassion also speak through them. Love for human beings,love for the dignity the nameless persons in these pictures continue to posess in the eyes of James Nachtwey and therefore also in the eyes of the reader.This book reached out and touched me deeply. It made me feel connected to those nameless people, who speak so loudly in these photographs. And however deeply angry I am that the world is still such a cruel place for so many of us humans, the anger doesnt make me feel powerless. But hopeful that I am not the only one who feels this connection and that if enough people do feel the same, we as human beings can stop these things from happening. This book empowers us and it made a difference to me in a profound way. Thank you, James Nachtwey.
I find that the words "a terrible beauty" sum up this masterpiece by James Nachtwey. These pictures deeply affected me beyond the written word. Sometimes a simple picture can portray so much. As a student of economic and international relations these images are what keeps me going, I want to be the idealist that believes that I can make a change too. Every time I see Nachtwey's images I can feel his appeal to the reader to make a difference or at the very least to be aware of global issues. People get so caught up in their own pain that one forgets the harsh reality imposed upon others in countries ravaged by war, ethnic genocide and famine. The picture plate of the skeletal man crawling on his hands and knees left a deep impact on me as well as the plate of the Rwandan man ravaged and violated by a machete from his own people. Indeed, as the Italian poet Dante described in "Inferno" these images describe the nine cirlces of hell.
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