James Natchwey was born in 1948 Syracuse, New York. He grew up in Leominster,
Massachusetts. He went to Dartmouth College in 1996 to 1970. While he was there
studied Art History and Political Science. But, these were turbulent times with the
Vietnam War going on. Natchwey left college to work on merchant ships, while working
on the ships. Hhe saw many pictures coming from the Vietnam War, these had a
profound effect on Natchwey. For the first time he saw graphic, true to life war pictures,
he realized these pictures were far from the stories that the government was telling the
people in the US, that's when he knew he had become a war photographer.
So he decided to teach himself photography. He bought himself books and began to
study them. Soon he started renting darkroom space to teach himself how to develop film
and print pictures. Then he started going to galleries and studying other photojournalists
work, some of those he studied were Henri she's Cartier-Bresson, Gene Smith, Josef
Koudelka and Don McMullin.
He continued to hone his photography skills, while working as an apprentice news film
editor and truck driver. In 1976 he got his first job as a photographer working for a local
New Mexico newspaper. He worked there for four years, improving his photography
skills. In 1980 moved to New York City to work as a freelance photographer.
His first major story was about bussing in Boston, in which he learned a valuable lesson.
He wandered off by himself, and was surrounded by gang of kids who beat him up.
What Natchwey really longed for most was to cover news of atrocities around the world.
He finally got what he wanted in 1981 when he was sent to cover the strife Northern
Ireland, during the IRA hunger strike.
Northern Ireland, 1981 - truck hijacked by Catholic demonstrators during the hunger strike of Bobby
Sands.
Over the year's Natchwey's work for Time Magazine, Magnum, Black Star, and he was
one of the founding members of the photo agency, VII.
Natchwey has covered some of the most brutal and horrific atrocities mankind has seen.
Many other photojournalist journalists believe he's the best war photographer of our time.
Some wonder how he deals with it, in Vietnam, it was said that photojournalist often
spend their off-hours with the men they were photographing, drinking with them in the
same bars and going to the same brothels. Even now most war photographer's a drink or
two at the end of the day and talk about the things they shot that they. But, Natchwey
usually goes to his room and has a couple of cups of water and goes to bed.
Natchwey says when he is shooting a subject, he tries to move slowly stay quiet, usually
not even talking. He said by acting this way, even people with just suffered a great loss,
except him and know that he is there to tell their story. By moving slow, he can usually
get very close to even grieving mother immediately after she's buried her child.
Or even a father and brother at the graveside of a loved one. A seen above, where a
graveyard now stands, where there used to be a football field.
In other photojournalist once said of Natchwey, where the other photojournalists are
backed off ways, Natchwey is right there at the scene. One example of this is when a
mob was chasing a man through the streets with clubs and machetes, Natchwey was right
there, he even pleaded for the mans life for twenty minutes, then the mob cut the mans
throat right in front of him, all this while all of the other photojournalist’ stood above
safely on surrounding walls.
He’s been wounded several times, and once another photojournalist, was mortally
wounded while standing right next to him. Hans-Hermann Klare, editor of STERN
magazine, said of Natchwey, “The first time I saw him, he was right up front, taking his
time shooting, while other photojournalist, were back further and hurrying to get their
shots.”
James Natchwey, up close and personal.
His photojournalist journeys, have taken him places none of us would want to go. He's
covered war, famine, Aids, 9-11 and the aftermath of all of these. His travels have taken
him to El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza, Israel,
Indonesia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, the Philippines, South Korea,
Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, South Africa, Russian, Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo, Romania,
Brazil, and the United States.
To say he's won numerous awards and honors is understatement. He has been awarded
the Common Wealth Award, the Martin Luther King, 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 Infiniti 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.
In my title I called Natchwey, an “antiwar” photographer, the reason I say this, as he says
in his own words, he hopes that his photographs will make people see what is going on
around the world, and maybe they’ll do something about it.
I took my information about his awards and travels from his web site.
EXCELLENT, THOROUGH AND WELL WRITTEN ESSAY!
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