Annie Leibovitz & James Nachtwey

I have never thought deeply about the meaning each photograph has, and how it reflects the idea of the photographer until I watched the video of two talented photographers: Annie Leibovitz and James Nachtwey. Both of them are the photographers, but the types of photographs taken by them are greatly different, while they have some essential aspects of photographs in common.


First, Annie Leibovitz takes pictures seeking for creativity, entertainment, and artistic beauty. In the first place, she enrolled in the school of San Francisco to study the paintings, but later, she was fascinated by the power of photographs. During her career, she has often worked with many celebrities appear on the mass media such as Rolling Stones, John lennon, and Demi Moore. She focused on how to attract the public capturing the character of each person. Sometimes the photograph is emotional, sometimes shocking, and sometimes mysterious. I felt that the combination of the context the photographs are taken and the posing or facial and bodily expression by the actor is the key point which decides the uniqueness of her photographs. Whether she produces the attractive works for people depends on how the actor accepts her needs. Even though the artistically perfect condition like a rose garden is prepared, if she cannot make actors act as she hopes, she may not create the works deserved to be published on media. With the negotiation between her and the actors, the impressive photographs would be produced. I have believed that the person who just has the great technique of operating cameras, and the knowledge of the photographs indicates the "talented" photographer. However, after watched the video, I realized that such my thought was completely wrong.


According to the video, "Life through a lens", in 1983, she has started to work for Vanity Fair. Today, I cited the two photographs from the website of it.

Leonardo DiCaprio

This photograph is taken by Annie Leibovitz on May 2007 at the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon in southeast Iceland. This photograph was used for the article about political issue of the environment. He is known as enviornmentalist, while he is the famous actor. The melting ice is symbolizing that now the environment on the earth is endangered, whereas the actor, Leonardo DiCaprio is gazing somewhere we cannot see. In my opinion, it looks showing that he is meditating on the unpredictable our future. The background matches to his character as the Eco-activist.

Miley Cyrus

It is taken by Annie Leibovitz on June 2008. She is very popular among teenagers. At the time, though she was still 15, she succeeded on the entertainment business with great hit TV series, Hannah Montana. Through the photograph, Annie Leibovitz tried to express Miley, who was being matured gradually. It is really natural, and artistic, I think.

As the whole, the photographs taken by Annie Leibovitz well represent the characters of people, while she takes advantage of the background and the stuffs as the objects to show off them.

Second, in contrast to Annie Leibovitz, James Nachtwey is the war photographer who takes the photographs to convey the truth, what happened, or is happening during the war. I learned the image of the Vietnam War impacted on his decision to be a war photographer. Actually, I have been to the Vietnam War museum in Vietnam, looking at the terrific images as I felt like covering my eyes, so his decision was very natural for me.

When I first saw that he was taking the photographs very close to the people, I really wondered if they were annoyed by him... For the victims of the war, he must be the complete stranger. I did not know how he asked permission for them. However, as the story proceeded, such my concern was no longer the big deal because I was overwhelmed by the greatness of his photographs. They are beyond my understanding... Everything he captured was shocking REALITY itself. In the video,sometimes, the images were shown through the lens, from his vision, so as if I myself saw the same scenes as he saw in the conflicts.

Additionally, I was interested in that, different from Annie Leibovitz, he keeps doing his work without much communication with people. Even though such his attitude often seems to make it difficult to know what he is thinking, I could find the series of his pictures include deep meanings. For example, when he spend for some days with the man lived in Indonesia, who lost one leg and one arm, he continued to take photographs following his action. He well described the man's daily life as it was seen. It became visible. I learned that how the man was making his life, taking care of children in such a tough condition. The technique of telling the reality without much his own emotional aspects, and opinion would not be imitated easily. Photographs taken by him themselves represented what he was feeling against the objects.

Rwanda, 1994 - Survivor of Hutu death camp.

Sudan, 1993 - Famine victim in a feeding center.

Indonesia, 1998 - A beggar washed his children in a polluted canal.

"I have been a witness, and these pictures are
my testimony. The events I have recorded should
not be forgotten and must not be repeated."
-James Nachtwey-

Last, as I mentioned before, although these two photographers create the different sorts of works, both of them includes the special meanings. Besides, what I was strongly impressed is that they are obviously doing the fieldwork. They research well about the object should be captured in their photographs, and always discover something new through the interaction with people. I did not know that people play such an important role on taking photographs. For our Japanese, it is rather hard to experience new things on the familiar environment, but I believe that if I talk with people more, and know them, that would be possible.

citation

Annie Leibovitz photoes;

-Leonardo DiCaprio,

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/05/dicaprio200705

-Miley Cyrus,

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/06/miley200806?currentPage=2

James Nachtwey photoes and his words; http://www.jamesnachtwey.com/