Timmy Lyles: War Photographer Reflection

What surprised me the most about the life of a photojournalist is how strong you have to be emotionally to take the pictures of families during tragedy and the worst parts of their lives. A photojournalist must also be close to the people they are taking pictures of. My previous knowledge was to sort of arrive, snap some photos and then I would be on my way; however, that’s not how it works at all. Developing relationships is a big part of being a photojournalist and understanding what people in your pictures are going through in such a tragic part of their life. Key elements are focusing and pre-visualizing situations at hand and preparing yourself mentally to deal with horrific events. A lot of sacrifice is taken to be a war photographer and there is a lot of dedication. Nachtwey is able to focus his emotions within his photos that he’s taking.

I find James Nachtwey’s images very powerful because the pictures are portraying people’s faces of fear, disbelief, sorrow and many other characteristics to describe war. When Nachtwey successfully took pictures for a documentary in Indonesia those were very powerful images because viewers could see that working people trying to raise their families had to build their own “houses” next to train tracks. To see a mother making a meal and nearly get hit by a train is simply heart wrenching. Nachtwey said, “If used well, photography can be a powerful ingredient for the antidote to war.” This quote is able to tell you that well done photojournalism can be as powerful to an outside party seeing this as is people actually fighting in these battles.

News photographs play a major role in shaping world events because the photos are obviously taken first hand, so it is a real capture of the moment for what the picture is displaying. For example, in the U.S seeing pictures of our soldiers over in Iraq really hits home because a lot of pictures are very appealing emotionally and can grab the viewer in an instant because of how much pain a person can feel from just that one image. The saying “every picture is worth one thousand words” really applies to war photography because any person can have their own opinion to a particular image and a war photo is most likely going to depict a story and give you a sense of what is going on. These images are important and have always been because of the stories they tell and in many words are not even necessary.