1000 Words at a Time



Sudan, 1993  -  Famine victim in a feeding center
James Nachtway
http://www.jamesnachtwey.com/



John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Annie Leibovitz
 http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/
annie-leibovitz/photo-gallery/19/



  

Since even before the digital camera hit the scene, the use of cameras by the average person has been very common.  If there are people at any given place or event, most likely there are also cameras, (the majority of of cell phones are equipped with a lens nowadays).  It is the way in which the person behind the camera uses this tool to see and capture the world around them that sets certain people apart fromt he rest.

World famous photographers,  Annie Leibovitz and James Nachtwey, have captured some of the most notable and powerful images in the history of photography. Their work is a perfect example of how incredibly broad the art of photography can be.  While the two of them are similar in the sense that their careers are based on the use of a camera to capture people, places and events...what these two photographers see through these lenses are worlds apart. 

The images shown above exhibit a way in which two photographs can convey immensely different emotions to the viewer.  Annie Leibovitz'z picture of Yoko Ono and the world famous musical icon John Lennon,  is an artistic way of capturing the loving interaction between two people.  Annie uses photography to show the world a part of the popular culture through various abstract methods. While much of Annie's career work is for the Rolling Stone Magazine and others,  James Nachtway worked differently.  He is a war photographer and also those events and people who suffer from the harshness of life such as famine, poverty, terrorism and disease.  James' photography, like the image above, brings to light what many humans in the world would never be aware of if it wasn't for the use of photography in magazine and the internet.  It is far too easy to be ignorant to the horrors of the world. 

These two photographers show the potential power that is held within a camera.  Photography is limitless and the topics can either please the viewer or motivate the viewer to make changes in the world.  It is interesting to look at these two images and what makes them so powerful.  Both men are on the brink of death, whether they are aware of this are not.  The Sudanese man is obviously struggling to survive, while John Lennon was shot and killed five hours after the photo was taken, making this picture even more historical.  What is it that decides the strength of a photo?  Is it death or is it life in its finest?  Photography and what makes it so beautiful is equally vast as life itself, and life and death is the main focus of these two photographers careers.