War Photographer - 2 Different Stories

Craig April 12th, 2007

James Nachtwey, founding member of VII photo agency is busy telling his story to anyone who’ll listen.

“I am a witness and my testimony may not be acceptable. My pictures are to be displayed while the events are still going on so it will become a part of society’s daily dialogue”.

Speaking at the University of Tennessee, Nachtwey talked about his personal experiences in 26 years as a war photographer, as well as presenting three slideshows of black and white images of war. Telling the audience that he became a photographer so that he could be a war photographer, Nachtwey went on to say that he believes that pictures from the past, such as those of the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights movement in the US and Nazi death camps in WW2, are more shocking than his own work.

Nachtwey’s career started in Northern Ireland which lead to a 23 year association with Time magazine and numerous awards, including the Common Wealth Award, the Martin Luther King Jr. Award, the World Press Photo Award (twice), Magazine Photographer of the Year (seven times), the Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award, the Canon Photo Essayist Award and the Robert Capa Gold Medal (five times).

While this was going on, another story was unfolding in Iraq. April 12 marks the day that AP photographer Bilal Hussein has been held, without charge, or any release of evidence, in a prison camp run by the US for the past year. On April 12, 2006, Hussein was arrested in the western city of Ramadhi and has been held since that time because he’s been deemed a”security threat”. According to Paul Gardephe, the lawyer handling the case for the AP, Hussein hasn’t been interrogated since May 2006, suggesting that he’s not thought to have any intelligence value.

One of the allegations the US miltary makes against Hussein is that he took photos that were synchronised with explosions caused by insurgents. Gardephe examined all of the more than 900 images that Hussein submitted to AP, and said “There are no photos that are synchronized with an explosion.”

“April 12 is a sad anniversary for Bilal’s AP colleagues worldwide,” said the AP’s executive editor, Kathleen Carroll. “He has now been held by the U.S. military in Iraq for an entire year without formal charges or the due process that a democratic society demands.”

Bilal Hussein was one of the photographers who contributed to AP’s 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning submission. More on this can be read here.

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