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.
This is a really nice summary of the work of these two photographers - interesting and well written.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about photo shop but there is the scene in the film when Nachtwey and his assistant are modifying the photo in the darkroom. Same difference, don't you think?