The Classic Photograph Fair présente sa deuxième édition, qui se tiendra dans l’historique Conway Hall de Red Lion Square, Holborn, WC1R 4RL, le 13 mai, de 9h à 16h. La Classic Photograph Fair est la seule foire de photographie gratuite de Londres, qui se concentre sur la photographie classique et vintage. Se déroulant pendant Photo London, la foire The Classic Photograph célèbre la photographie datant des premières années du médium.…
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MOUNT PLEASANT MILLS — Birth photographer Megan Angstadt-Williams’s first paid booking ended up being a sort of baptism by fire: a home delivery with more than 17 hours of labor that culminated in the baby having breathing problems and the mother and child being transferred by ambulance to the hospital. Still, both Angstadt-Williams and the new parents were glad she was there.
“The midwives were amazing. Everyone was calm, cool and collected,” Angstadt-Williams said. “I just continued to document and do my thing.”
Mother and baby were fine, and she eventually documented another birth for the couple.
Although she’s only been doing birth photography for a little more than two years, Angstadt-Williams had two winning images. “Liminal Space” earned a Bronze Award and “Skin to Skin” placed in the top 20 percent of the entries in the International Association of Professional Birth Photographers (IAPBP) 2023 Birth Photography Competition.
“It was a little mind-blowing,” she said of winning awards in an international competition that she entered on the spur of a moment. “It was a great honor.”
“The annual competition by IAPBP celebrates the beauty of birth and the skill of birth photographers around the globe in four main categories — birth details, labor, delivery, and postpartum. New this year are four subcategories: black & white, documentary, fine art, and hardship & loss,” said an IAPBP press release. “We are incredibly proud of the entrants of this year’s competition because in spite of all we endured in our community in recent years, this contest represents the resistance birth photographers have to overcome unforeseen challenges.”
To see Angstadt-Williams’s award-winning photos, visit https://birthphotographers.com/2022-birth-photography-image-competition/.
While some might shy away from documenting their birthing experience, Angstadt-Williams’s clients are happy they hired her.
“I absolutely adore Megan,” said Christiana Delk, of Kulpmont, Angstadt-Williams’s first client.
Delk recalled a particular photo taken from above the birthing pool while her husband’s arms were wrapped around her. When she saw the picture, she was amazed.
“I didn’t even notice Megan doing it. She has such a calming presence. I had no idea she was there most of the time,” Delk said. “She’s absolutely incredible. She’s kind of like a wallflower, blending in with the background. She is a great fit in a birth space.”
Briana Chasen, of Bloomsburg, hired Angstadt-Williams as both her birth photographer and certified birthing doula last October.
“She did an absolutely phenomenal job,” Chasen said. “She was amazing. I didn’t even notice her taking photos. I knew she was there, but I never noticed a flash. I’m still speechless. We told her we would have her back for every birth. She’s special to the family.”
Angstadt-Williams firmly believes everyone should have a professional birth photographer to document their babies entering the world. She is honored when clients trust her to share in such a personal event and enjoys seeing her clients’ expressions when they review the photos and remember their experiences through a different lens.
“People are so focused during labor, they don’t know what’s going on around them. It can be empowering to see how powerful they looked while going through it,” she said.
She finds beauty in the struggle of birthing, the fact that it hurts and is hard to do. She firmly believes that birth is not taboo or pornographic and hopes that photos like the “raw and uncensored images that received recognition” in the contest can be normalized as part of life.
“It can be scary, but people do it anyway, over and over again,” she said, explaining how birth brings blood and messiness along with a living being. “Blood is bringing new life into the world. It shouldn’t be a taboo topic. It’s not gross. It’s just another aspect of people’s lives.”
Considering that everyone must experience birth and death, perhaps it’s not surprising that she is also drawn toward Bereavement Photography, capturing the few precious moments parents can share with a deceased newborn.
“It’s just a gut kind of feeling. This is what I was meant to be doing, especially the niche bereavement work,” she said. “I feel like there is such a need for it. In these situations, people won’t get to see their baby again. It can be really healing to have those photos.”
Beyond birthing and bereavement, she also does all sessions that relate to parenthood, including maternity, birth, newborn and family. She likes to take lifestyle photos of families — let the kitchen counter be covered with baby bottles and the living room carpet strewn with toys. These photos preserve a true-to-life moment that will one day bring back tender memories.
When Angstadt-Williams takes on a new client she agrees to get to them as quickly as possible when their birthing process begins. However, she recalled one time when she got the call, was in her car within 10 minutes, and still arrived to find the parents cradling their minutes-old babe.
“I just walked in, and there they all were,” she said with a smile. “I was still able to document all those post-partum events.”
Another time she photographed a surrogate mother giving birth for the adoptive mother.
“That was really touching,” she said, adding after some thought, “Each birth has these special moments. It’s hard to pick a favorite.”
For more information, visit http://www.badgerandquillphotography.com/.
Cindy O. Herman lives in Snyder County. Email comments to her at CindyOHerman@gmail.com.
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Imagine a photographer shows up late for a shoot. He hurries through the house and misses some rooms, requiring a return visit. The photography is delivered a week later, much to the annoyance of the agent and seller.
Across town, a professionally dressed photographer arrives on time and engages the homeowner with a friendly greeting before expertly capturing every angle of the house. She opens all doors so she doesn’t miss a room and adjusts the lighting to portray a warm, inviting ambiance. The next day, the agent receives a complete media package. The listing posts, days before the other agent ever receives his pictures.
Which photographer would you choose? The answer may be obvious now, but in the preliminary stages of selecting a photographer, it can be hard to know which one will show up at the property. Here are some best practices to ensure your listing (and your client) are set up for success:
1. Do your homework. As listings linger on the market and home prices stagnate and fall, photography has never played a more pivotal role in the buying and selling of a home.
In today’s competitive market, it’s more important than ever to ensure your listing stands out with a variety of high-quality photography and media.
Ask for referrals from other agents you trust. Then look at photographers’ portfolios and check for consistency, which comes with experience and training.
2. Stand out from the pack. In response to the pandemic, new technology has emerged in support of virtual open houses. Moving forward, agents will see more options in real estate media vying for the buyer’s attention during the home-buying process.
For instance, new AI-powered interactive floor plans by ShowingTime+ have transformed the static listing into a fully immersive client experience by providing an all-in-one virtual tour and floor plan that lets buyers click and view a room from any perspective on the floor plan.
You might also look to increase the variety of your listing media, including drone photography and other add-ons such as amenity photography and virtual staging, particularly for vacant properties.
3. Determine turnaround time ahead of time. As every agent knows, a photographer’s turnaround time can make or break a listing. To ensure efficiency, check referrals and review the company’s policy to see how long you can expect delivery.
While smaller one- or two-person teams might not have the bandwidth and operational support to ensure a fast one- to three-day turnaround, a larger, well-run operation equipped with editors, customer support, and a delivery team may be more likely to have the resources to guarantee your images as fast as the next day.
4. Test the booking experience. Real estate is a fast-paced business, so agents need real-time booking information that’s fast and easy to navigate. A great first question to ask when vetting photographers is, “What does the ordering process look like?” According to Abby Kopp, Manager, Photographer Network Operations for ShowingTime+ new Listing Media Services, her team is able to provide an open and flexible booking system to maximize photographers’ availability and give agents real-time scheduling visibility.
5. Prepare with a pre-shoot checklist. Another key to a great shoot is in the preparation of the home. Great photographers will help coach agents and clients on how to prepare the home including turning on lights, turning off ceiling fans, and removing cars from the driveway.
“Get that pre-shoot checklist done and have that house ‘showing ready,’” says Kopp. “So when the photographer arrives, your listing will look great!”
Click here for a free downloadable pre-shoot checklist to share with your clients.
May 08, 2023
Watson Elementary School students rehearse for a showcase presentation through Arkansas A+ pARTners After School Program.
A U of A outreach program, Arkansas A+, provides after-school arts opportunities for students in underserved schools in the Little Rock School District.
Now in its third semester, pARTners After School Program has expanded to serve students at Watson, Chicot, Mabelvale and Stephens elementary schools. The grant-funded project is a partnership between Arkansas A+ and Little Rock Community Schools. The goal of the program is to increase access to after-school care for families while providing arts enrichment opportunities for students. The spring semester was the first for the program at Mabelvale and Stephens elementary schools. The program will return to all four schools in fall 2023.
Each after-school program runs for eight weeks and includes performing and visual arts modules led by experienced teaching artists. At the close of this semester’s program, Arkansas A+ sponsored a student showcase to share the students’ work with their families and school communities.
Alyssa Wilson, executive director of Arkansas A+, held a professional development workshop with the program teams at which teaching artists worked with art teachers from each school to begin their planning. Wilson said, “During those sessions, the word ‘connection’ kept reappearing as important to our work with the program. Connections across our program team, connections with our program students, connections among the students and connections to the arts that were being explored. This realization led to our adopting ‘Connection’ as our overarching concept for the program.”
Visual artists Jose Hernandez and Syd Carmichael explored layering, color, texture and subject matter with students by creating a mural. They shared, “Something that really stands out for us was the way in which the students both connected with each other and with us. At first, the students would be shy, but as the program went on, we saw them come out of their shells and really flourish. Both their abilities and their self-esteem grew.”
Patty Oeste, a performing artist, focused on music with the students. They learned the Native American flute, composed a class piece and performed the piece with soloists who volunteered to improvise throughout the piece. Harnessing the energy and creativity of the students, they went on to play hand drums and choreograph their own drumline. At the end of the program showcase, students invited their families up to dance with them using a parachute and choreography they had created. One student said, “Music is my life. It is there when I am sad, afraid, happy or alone.”
Arkansas A+ is a U of A College of Education and Health Professions outreach program. It provides schools with ongoing professional development, an intricate network of support and an active research component. In Arkansas A+ schools, teaching the state’s mandated curriculum involves a collaborative, multi-disciplined approach with the arts — dance/movement, theater, music, creative writing and visual arts — continuously woven into every aspect of a child’s learning. The hands-on curriculum ignites student learning and leads to higher achievement.
Dave Kanietakeron Fadden points to a piece of his artwork displayed at BluSeed Studios in Saranac Lake on Friday.
(Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)
SARANAC LAKE — Dave Kanietakeron Fadden stood next to the favorite of his paintings in the gallery at BluSeed Studios on Friday, speaking to a crowd gathered in a semi-circle around him about the history of residential schools.
Behind him were hundreds of sullen faces in black and white. He spoke about how these schools in the U.S. and Canada — which were largely established by Christian missionaries and operated by Christian churches with government funding — stripped Indigenous people of their culture for over a century, taking off their traditional clothes and putting them in military uniforms, cutting their hair and severely punishing them if they spoke their native language.
It is a painful part of his history, one which nearly destroyed that language, he explained.
“But this is where we are now,” Fadden said, sweeping his arm across the image. At the right-most edge of the canvas, there’s an explosion of vibrant color, braided hair and laughter.
“We’re coming out of that dark period,” he said. “We’re able to practice our culture. We’re able to wear our traditional outfits, go to our ceremonies. We have self-determination of our own future.”
Dave Kanietakeron Fadden speaks to a group of people about his artwork at BluSeed Studios in Saranac Lake on Friday.
(Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)
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History
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Fadden grew up with artists and creators all around.
His father was an art teacher. His mother, a wood carver and potter. His grandfather, who founded the Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center in Onchiota — which his family still runs — was a prolific bead worker. On the other side of his family, his grandmother was a basket maker and his grandfather made lacrosse sticks.
“Everyone did something,” Fadden said.
He got his start in the visual arts by drawing on the walls of his parents’ living room in a corner hidden away by the curve of a sectional sofa.
“Caveman art,” he called it.
Inevitably, his mother found his sketchings. But rather than scolding him, he said she bought him a desk and materials. He is thankful for her encouragement.
What were those earliest works, crafted in secrecy and hidden away from sight?
“Who knows?” Fadden said.
He just kept drawing and realized he had a gift. The struggle was to make a living off it. He got his first book illustration job at age 19. He estimates he’s produced more than 400 books by now.
It pays the bills, but his passion is painting portraits. His subjects are Indigenous people and people he knows. Fadden said he has always wanted to show the whole range of emotions in their faces.
“There are lots of misconceptions in popular culture about Indigenous people that we are all stoic,” Fadden said.
There are some grim-faced subjects in his work, but more often there are faces of joy, sadness, excitement and peace.
On the wall opposite the painting of the children is a portrait of a single face, a sub-chief in the Turtle Clan of the Mohawk nation, and Fadden’s cousin. His laughter can almost be heard from the painting.
“Stoic? Not this guy,” Fadden said. He was always telling them dirty jokes.
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Inspiration
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Scattered around the gallery is a series of mosaic-style paintings — portraits made from intricate networks of smaller tiles depicting native patterns, cultural touchstones and pieces of Fadden’s life in a mix of pointillism and collage.
These images are striking from a distance. But moving closer, close enough to smell the paint, they reward close inspection with hidden treasures, like a “Where’s Waldo” book. Some premeditated, some just representations of what was on his mind at the time he drew it.
He pointed out a couple: “There’s the coronavirus. … There’s Black Lives Matter. … There’s Yoda.”
Many of his paintings have Star Wars references hidden in them, a tribute to his friend Joe Barnes. Fadden remembers the day he visited Barnes and saw his historic Star Wars memorabilia collection — thousands of pieces.
Barnes died in 2018, so now Fadden paints his memory into every piece he can. On the right side of the painting of the children is a young Barnes, grinning and wearing a pendant with the emblem of the Jedi Order.
Fadden said he was inspired by Chuck Close, a New York City painter whose photorealistic works printed in magazines captivated him as a kid, whose large canvases intrigued him as a young adult and whose creativity in mosaic portraits made him want to expand as an artist. In 1988, Fadden said, Close suffered a collapsed spinal artery, which paralyzed him. He could move his arms, but he couldn’t hold a brush. So he would tie a brush to one hand and use the other to guide it.
“I was like, ‘I’ve got everything here. What’s my excuse?’” Fadden said.
This is Fadden’s second solo showing. The first was in 2020, right at the onset of coronavirus pandemic-related lockdowns. But he’s been a part of many group shows, including one at BluSeed last year focused on water. After that show, BluSeed Executive Director Marissa Hernandez asked him to do a solo exhibit.
Fadden’s medium is visual, but he said it speaks to the importance of language in his culture.
His grandmother was in one of these residential schools, and he said she lost the ability to speak Mohawk. If she did, the nuns hit her. She told him about another girl, 6 years of age, who did not speak a word of English. When she spoke Mohawk, the adults would lock her in a windowless closet all night.
She didn’t know why because the nuns didn’t communicate with her, but she realized it happened when she spoke, so she stayed silent for two years, Fadden said.
“We’re at a critical stage in our existence,” he said.
Language is especially important for Native Americans because they did not have a written language. Traditions, history and politics were all passed on verbally. These schools did a lot of damage, he said. They taught shame as children were told they were going to burn in hell for their spiritualism if they didn’t assimilate into Christianity. Residential schools opened after the Civil War and the last school only closed in 1997.
The reference for Fadden’s painting of the children is a class photo from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, which had a class of around 1,000. The man who founded this school is infamous for his motto, “Kill the Indian, save the man.”
But Fadden’s painting is titled “Kill the Indian. Save the man, fail.” These schools failed in killing the Indian, and the evidence is all around at BluSeed.
The free exhibit, sponsored by the Adirondack Diversity Initiative, is open to the public on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays from 2 to 6 p.m. Fadden will be back for the exhibit closing and an artist conversation on June 25 from 5 to 7 p.m.
James Nachtwey: The 60 Minutes Interview – CBS News
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“There are many ways of telling stories, but a still photo has a power that is unlike anything else,” 60 Minutes correspondent Anderson Cooper said to renowned war photographer James Nachtwey.
For more than 40 years, James Nachtwey has used his camera to show humanity a reflection of itself, often photographing war scenes and reporting from areas of conflict. At 75, he still photographing and on Sunday was profiled on 60 Minutes by Anderson Cooper.
“I think it has real social value. That before we can solve problems, we have to identify them,” Nachtwey told 60 Minutes while describing what keeps him working. “And I think the work of journalists and of photojournalists is to identify issues that need to be dealt with by society.”
Nachtwey showed Cooper dozens of photos from his archive that document everything from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam.
“Without a doubt you have been the person who made me interested in wanting to do this line of work,” Cooper told Nachtwey.
Cooper told 60 Minutes Overtime that Nachtwey’s work is a reminder of how important, beautiful and moving journalism can be.
You can watch Anderson Cooper’s profile on James Nachtwey below.
The video at the top was produced by Keith Zubrow and edited by Sarah Shafer Prediger.
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When Russia invaded Ukraine last year James Nachtwey packed up his cameras and Kevlar vest and rushed to the frontlines. Nachtwey is one of the greatest war photographers of all time. Over the last four decades he’s covered nearly every armed conflict in the world. He was shot in the leg in Thailand, wounded by a bomb in El Salvador, a mortar in Beirut, and a grenade in Iraq that was tossed into a humvee he was riding in.
James Nachtwey is 75 now, and as we found out trying to keep up with him over the past year, still risking his life to capture images that may be difficult to look at… but important to never forget.
In the darkest times and in the most dangerous places, James Nachtwey captures beauty and brutality. Moments of hate and heroism, senseless destruction, and quiet acts of compassion.
His photographs reveal the deepest and often disturbing depths of who we are and what we do to each other.
60 Minutes
Anderson Cooper: You’ve said that photographs can speak, and I’m wondering if you feel like you’re– you’re helping give voice to some of the people you photograph.
James Nachtwey: Well, many of the people I photographed are marginalized by the powers that be, that they’re silenced, they’re made invisible. So when someone comes from another part of the world and he assumes risk to tell their story, I think people see us as a kind of messenger.
Nachtwey has devoted his life to telling other people’s stories… bearing witness to their suffering and sacrifices. But documenting what he calls “the insanity of war” has been the core of his career.
He’s spent decades covering conflicts in Afghanistan and the Middle East, the war in Bosnia, and the genocide in Rwanda when as many as a million people died.
Anderson Cooper: Some photographers have talked about their camera as a weapon. Do you think of your camera in that way?
James Nachtwey: I think it’s a way of looking at it. Because in a way you’re, you might be fighting for peace or fighting against an injustice and the way you do it is by informing people about it, with the faith that people will want something done about it.
In Ukraine at the start of the war Nachtwey worked in and around Kyiv and Kharkiv for the New Yorker magazine. These are images he took in Bucha shortly after Russian troops pulled out, leaving behind the bodies of civilians they’d executed.
James Nachtwey: Bucha was horrendous. It was really, like, kind of butchery.
Anderson Cooper: In terms of brutality, of all the militaries you have seen does the Russian military stand apart in Ukraine for their behavior?
James Nachtwey: Somehow the Russians have stood apart, and not only in Ukraine, but in Chechnya.
60 Minutes
Nachtwey was in Chechnya’s capital Grozny for weeks in 1995 and ’96, as Russian forces relentlessly bombarded the city…
James Nachtwey: The part that was inhabited by the Chechens was pounded into rubble from artillery, and rocket fire, and air strikes for weeks and weeks on end, with the civilian population trapped inside. They’ve taken that to Ukraine but it’s throughout the country.
In Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine… last year we watched Nachtwey as he worked.. photographing a man living in a crawl space under a building to avoid shelling.
Months later, back in his New Hampshire studio, Nachtwey showed us some of the images he’d taken.
Anderson Cooper: What made this an image that spoke to you?
James Nachtwey: The expression on his face. If you really look carefully at his eyes, you can see there’s terror in his eyes. He’d just been living in a state of terror for quite a while.
This photograph was taken in a Kyiv suburb of civilians evacuating across a makeshift bridge.
Anderson Cooper: These are split seconds that are occurring. You can be running and taking a picture…
James Nachtwey: Quite often I’m running. And I have to try and make a composition, get it in focus, and catch the moment.
Anderson Cooper: People talk about your use of hands in images. Is that something you’re conscious of?
James Nachtwey: I’m extremely conscious of hands and eyes. I think those are the two most expressive parts of people.
James Nachtwey: This is a really good example here.
James Nachtwey: That’s the center of the picture, the old man’s hand, reaching for support to be held up by the volunteer.
Anderson Cooper: How many scenes like this have you seen in your life?
James Nachtwey: Too many.
60 Minutes
Decades of Nachtwey’s photographs are on display in a traveling exhibition called Memoria. When it stopped in New York he showed us some of the 67 stunning images in it.
James Nachtwey: These are the orphanages in Romania.
In 1990 Nachtwey helped reveal the shocking squalor and neglect in Romania’s state-run orphanages.
James Nachtwey: The cribs were just packed together. The children were in the cribs and they weren’t taken out to play. They were almost like in prison, in a way.
His photographs, published in The New York Times Magazine, helped lead to an international effort to rescue these children.
James Nachtwey: How does a child who’s, what, 3-years-old maybe have a look like that in his eyes?
Other walls in the exhibition were lined with casualties of war…a family mourning in Bosnia… a father protecting his wounded daughter from gunfire in El Salvador.
Anderson Cooper: Those are machete strikes?
And this man — a survivor of a machete attack in Rwanda.
James Nachtwey: He couldn’t talk. I approached him very slowly. And I just made eye contact with him. And I showed him my camera. And he allowed me to take the picture. He even turned his face more toward the light without me asking.
Anderson Cooper: That’s important to you, that somebody gives their permission in a situation like this?
James Nachtwey: I don’t wanna feel like I’m taking from people. I want them to feel like they’re part of what I’m doing. And I think he understood what his scars would say to the rest of the world.
Anderson Cooper: Do you get depressed by it? Do you cry? Do you get angry?
James Nachtwey: I’m angry a lot of the time. I mean, when I see innocent people being pushed around and bullied. Yeah, I fight depression. It– the things are depressing. But I think it’s a sense of purpose that, you know, sorta drives me through that.
60 Minutes
Anderson Cooper: You’ve said that you had to learn how to channel your anger as a journalist.
James Nachtwey: I realize anger can just throw you off the rails. So I channel it into the pictures. And I think my pictures have anger in them, but they also have compassion.
It was this image and others taken by the legendary life magazine photographer Larry Burrows in Vietnam that opened Nachtwey’s eyes to the power of pictures when he was a student at Dartmouth College in the late 1960s. Burrows’ photographs had a point of view, revealing the reality of war for service members and civilians alike.
Anderson Cooper: How did you start?
James Nachtwey: I just started cold. I read books. I would create assignments for myself and I would go out as if I was working for an editor and practice.
Anderson Cooper: Wait, so you would just make up your own assignments?
James Nachtwey: Yes. I said, “Okay, I’m gonna go out on that fishing trawler.” You know, making believe, you know, I was shooting for National Geographic or something.
He landed a job taking pictures for the Albuquerque Journal in 1976. That’s his photo on the front page.
But it wasn’t until 1981, after 10 years of training, that Nachtwey felt ready to photograph armed conflict. He bought a ticket to Belfast, northern Ireland where riots and street battles were escalating.
Anderson Cooper: Did you know people there?
James Nachtwey: I didn’t know anyone. I was green. I just threw myself into it.
His photographs from there were published by Newsweek magazine.
James Nachtwey: I felt that I was in the midst of history as it was happening and I was documenting it and that– that was really an exciting feeling.
Anderson Cooper: You were on the breaking wave of history.
James Nachtwey: I mean, isn’t that what photographers do? Because nothing’s been written. A situation is happening, we actually don’t know what’s gonna happen in the next moment. Anything can happen.
His unflinching coverage of the civil wars in Central America in the 1980’s cemented Nachtwey’s reputation and earned him a contract with Time magazine…where his work appeared for the next 34 years.
In South Africa in the early 1990s Nachtwey covered the violent end of apartheid and the blood-soaked birth of a new democracy. He was there when another photojournalist Ken Oosterbroek was shot to death and two other colleagues wounded.
James Nachtwey: We were down on the ground, trying to not be targets of incoming fire. And you can see my hair part from the bullet going through my hair.
Anderson Cooper: You actually felt the bullet go through your hair?
James Nachtwey: You can actually see it on the film.
Here it is again in slow motion, as Nachtwey in the white shirt moved to reach his injured colleague, a bullet, like a gust of wind, grazed his hair.
Anderson Cooper: You’ve come close many times to being killed. Is it worth it for these images?
James Nachtwey: It’s not for any one image. It’s for the job itself. I decided a long time ago that if I was gonna do this, I would have to put myself at risk, and anything could happen.
Anderson Cooper: You clearly made a commitment that this was worth sacrificing for, worth sacrificing having a family for.
James Nachtwey: I realized that if I were to pursue what I’m doing, and I was very driven to do that, I wouldn’t be a good father. I wouldn’t be a good husband, and all that would fall apart. I just didn’t want that to happen. So I had to forgo it.
60 Minutes
Nachtwey lives in Hanover, New Hampshire, where he went to college, though he is rarely there for long.
His life’s work — nearly a million images–has been acquired by Dartmouth, including his wrenching coverage of the opioid epidemic in the U.S. and contact sheets from the morning of September 11th. Nachtwey was just blocks away when the towers were hit.
Anderson Cooper: So that’s the first image…
James Nachtwey: Yes. That’s roll one. That’s the first picture right there.
The proof sheets are a silent reminder of the horror that day…but also reveal how Nachtwey works. He isn’t just a photographer documenting destruction. He’s a man in search of meaning.
James Nachtwey: About a block and a half from the south tower was a small Roman Catholic church with a cross on the top. And I thought that was an interesting way of framing it. It somehow indicated the cultural difference between who was being attacked and who was doing the attacking. And as I was photographing it, the tower fell.
Anderson Cooper: That’s what happening right here?
James Nachtwey: It starts collapsing as I’m photographing it. And all of this debris, these giant girders that must have weighed tons, were flying through the air.
Anderson Cooper: You were about to get killed?
James Nachtwey: So I found my way into the lee of a building and it all flew over me.
Decades of close calls have taken their toll on James Nachtwey. His hearing is damaged and he has grenade shrapnel in his knees, stomach, and face, but he has no plans on retiring and still finds reasons to hope in his camera’s viewfinder.
James Nachtwey: That look of just utter joy and…
As in this image of Nelson Mandela on the eve of his election as South Africa’s first Black president in 1994.
James Nachtwey: His fist in the air, which is a symbol of both triumph and defiance.
And this one, taken two years earlier of South African children playing on a trampoline.
Anderson Cooper: What made you take this picture?
James Nachtwey: There’s something about the innocence of children that’s transcendent and to bounce on a trampoline, I think that you get to the height of your jump and then for a moment, you defy gravity. And I think that’s the feeling that I wanted to get in this picture, that they’re transcending the weight that has been on their society.
Perhaps in the end that is what James Nachtwey shows us in his work. That we are all capable of transcending our circumstances and ourselves. We can commit terrible acts of brutality and barbarism, but also stunning acts of kindness and caring.
Anderson Cooper: Are you optimistic about the human species? I mean, you see the worst in, in people.
James Nachtwey: I don’t know if “optimism” is exactly the right word. But in these horrible situations, we see everyday citizens doing remarkable things for each other. Mothers and fathers are my heroes. What they do for their children. How they protect them. Being in places where people have next to nothing and yet, anything they have, they offer to a stranger. Those are the things that we all have and that are displayed in the worst situations that makes me believe in humanity.
Produced by Denise Schrier Cetta. Associate producer, Katie Brennan. Broadcast associat, Annabelle Hanflig. Edited by Joe Schanzer.
