Nachtwey and Leibovitz, Two differences

http://www.doobybrain.com/2010/03/19/james-nachtwey-photographs-tuberculosis-patients/
http://www.biography.com/articles/James-Nachtwey-38952

http://jezebel.com/5162918/vanity-fair-not-in-favor-of-naked-men
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/annie-leibovitz/life-through-a-lens/16/

James Nachtwey is a war photographer from Syracuse, New York. He served in the marines and was inspired by Vietnam War photos. He became a freelance photographer after moving back to New York from New Mexico where he was a newspaper photographer. After his first international assignment, he became renowned for traveling around the world and taking war-time photos in Russia, Africa, Asia, Middle-East and Central-America. (Bio)

I think that he is a amazing war-time and poverty photography because he travels to hostel locations where he has to encounter death and where he has the chance of facing death himself. He puts himself on the line to capture depressing and action moments that reveal the world. For example, the photo that I choose shows a man suffering from tuberculosis. The picture is solely captured by an invisible man. I think this best describes his photos. He is able to take pictures without the person focusing on the camera. He is able to capture the right expressions that reveal the true person and the moment. His photos aren't photo shopped, so they are always perfected I think. He takes numerous photos, yet he is a professing when picking out the exact photo to show the world of what he encountered. The next photographer that I am going to discuss is Annie Leibovitz. She is a totally different photographer, yet she is just as renowned as Nachtwey in her own way.

Annie Leibovitz was interested in becoming a painter until she traveled to Japan with her mom and realized that she wanted to become a photographer. She took night classes on photography and made her big break after speaking with the editor of Rolling Stones magazine over her portfolio. One of her first big photo shoots was of John Lennon and Yoko Ono before Lennon was shot, hours later. She has taken photos of hundreds of celebrities and of photographed even political figures such as the president and cabinet. She is one of the most renowned photographers in the world.(PBS)

The photo I chose is of two photos both shot by Leibovitz. First is a cover shot Vanity Fair, and the second shot is of comedians in the same pose. I found this interesting because she would do the same shot again, but the difference is that the guys are in suits because their skin is not pale enough for a "nude" photo, and that Leibovitz is huge on exact lighting of her photos. (Jezebel)

Both of these photographers are the best in the world I think because I have always seen their work in the media and magazines. They cannot be really compared to each other because they both handle photography differently. They both travel to different locations and focus on different things such as battle field, celebrities, poor, third world countries, political figures... They both use their skills to capture people in real or unreal situations to showcase around the world.

Japanese Portrait

These Japanese portraits are simple, yet they show a complex person. My Japanese friend is a Kansai Gaidai student; however, he is misleading person when he is hanging out with me and other foreign students because other Japanese students think he is foreigner sometimes because of speaking skills and looks (I will explain in more details in final paragraph). He speaks English as well as other Kansai students who have studied abroad because he enjoys watching political news shows in English and reading English websites. He watches The Daily Show, which is quite odd because it is satire news show with real news, a mixed combination. He is able to understand 90% percent of everything except some jokes that only native speaker of English will understand. Along with The Daily Show, he enjoys watching South Park. He can understand most of the jokes, which are usually related to making fun of America. I think his English comprehension is outstanding for a student who interacts with foreign students most of the time.

His English is very coherent for someone who has never gone abroad; however, he is planning on going too Los Angeles soon for vacation. I think that he will have no problems while overseas in America because of his proficient English speaking and reading skills.  I hope that he is able to have a nice time when in America. 

He does and doesn’t look Japanese. I am not sure how to explain this, but he is sometimes questioned by Japanese people when he and I meet up with others to go somewhere. Maybe, Japanese people think that he is foreign because he enjoys hanging out with study abroad students and speaking English or maybe because of his looks. He says sometimes he does not look like typical Japanese. I am not sure how to define the “typical” Japanese person. It is usual girls that ask “nihonjin desuka?,” meaning “are you Japanese?” I think he really represents true Japanese man because he does not try and look or act like “host” or “pretty boy.”

These portrait pictures only show his face and nothing else. He is pretending to sleep or to look off in distance; however, he has a lot of potential to become great English speaker and teacher someday because he is always interacting with study abroad students. I think old phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover,” works well in explaining him because I had no idea when I first met him that his English communication skills would be so great and political knowledge about US and Japan.