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Learn Digital Photography with Sandro Dzneladze

James Nachtwey – Famous War Photographer

Category: Famous Photographers
Written on Oct 06, 2007 by Sandro Dzneladze
James Nachtwey – Famous War Photographer

I believe the world should be thanking James Nachtwey for his commitment to photography. There are several photographs who could say that they have put their lives on the line to document conflicts, but probably not as frequently as James Nachtwey has.

James Nachtwey started out as most other photographers have. They started out working for a fairly small Newspaper agency. From there, they work their way up, but most do not take their path to fame in the manner that Nachtwey has. Only five years after going into professional photography he found himself with an overseas assignment of covering the civil conflict that was occurring in Northern Ireland in 1981.

Over the course of time he has not only found himself there, but also in South Africa, Russia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and even the former Soviet Union. On all of these trips, his job was to record and document the conflicts that were occurring.

Unfortunately for James Nachtwey his luck finally ran out of being in the middle of all of the fighting when he was injured during his time trying to document what was occurring in Baghdad. As he was providing extensive coverage for the United States invasion of Iraq, he found himself a victim of a grenade landing inside of his vehicle. A brave soldier named Weisskopf grabbed the grenade to throw it out of the window. When he had it in his hand, the grenade went off. Nachtwey was able to take several photographs of a medic helping two injured soldiers prior to passing out. Nachtwey suffered some injuries but has since fully recovered and has since been back on the trail to documenting overseas conflicts and destruction, including the tsunami that hit Southeast Asia.

Due to his commitment to documenting such things, he has become known as the “War Photographer” in the industry. He has had several contract jobs for various companies in effort to document these types of events. James Nachtwey continues to work in this field.

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