zondag, september 21, 2003
In Iraq, a lot of my friends and colleagues were embedded, and not one of them complained of being restricted. They thought it was a very good, professional relationship, that the troops allowed them to do whatever they wanted to do. I covered the war from Baghdad. That was the aspect I felt most compelled to cover, to tell the story of what was happening to the Iraqi population as best I could. But there were restrictions. We were in the hands of a totalitarian police state, and although we were allowed to work in a limited way, it was very difficult, and quite dangerous if you broke the rules, which I did as often as I could. It was very uneasy; this government was cruel and remorseless, and they could have done anything to us.
I wasn't censored. It's nearly impossible now due to the nature of modern journalism, which is all done by satellite phones. They couldn't possibly keep track of it all, so they just tried to restrict what we were able to see and hear. But you could find ways to bend the rules.
I was going on government-directed bus tours of various sites that had been hit by American missiles, and had my personal driver trail the bus. As a photographer, you can't make an eloquent and powerful image if there are 20 camera crews walking over the scene of the bombing. So we'd go back later to revisit the spots without the government minders. Then I could work alone and see something more real, see how people were reacting to it.
While I'm working, I'm sharing the same danger as the people I'm photographing, some of the same hardships, and I think they appreciate that, but at the end of the day, I get on a plane and leave them behind, and that is something that I have to reckon with. But I believe there's a purpose to it, a value. Eventually the flow of information creates a pressure for change. I remember, the war in Bosnia at one time seemed endless, but it's over now.
I've been covering events in the Mid East and the Islamic world since 1981. A couple of wars in Beirut, several uprisings in the West Bank and Gaza. I'd been to Afghanistan with the Mujahedin when they were fighting the Russians, and during the civil war when the Taliban were trying to take Kabul, and in Chechnya, Somalia, Kosovo and Bosnia. And at the time I was photographing those stories, I thought they were all separate stories. But at this moment, history crystallized in my mind, and I realized that for 20 years I'd been covering the same story.
James Nachtwey
I wasn't censored. It's nearly impossible now due to the nature of modern journalism, which is all done by satellite phones. They couldn't possibly keep track of it all, so they just tried to restrict what we were able to see and hear. But you could find ways to bend the rules.
I was going on government-directed bus tours of various sites that had been hit by American missiles, and had my personal driver trail the bus. As a photographer, you can't make an eloquent and powerful image if there are 20 camera crews walking over the scene of the bombing. So we'd go back later to revisit the spots without the government minders. Then I could work alone and see something more real, see how people were reacting to it.
While I'm working, I'm sharing the same danger as the people I'm photographing, some of the same hardships, and I think they appreciate that, but at the end of the day, I get on a plane and leave them behind, and that is something that I have to reckon with. But I believe there's a purpose to it, a value. Eventually the flow of information creates a pressure for change. I remember, the war in Bosnia at one time seemed endless, but it's over now.
I've been covering events in the Mid East and the Islamic world since 1981. A couple of wars in Beirut, several uprisings in the West Bank and Gaza. I'd been to Afghanistan with the Mujahedin when they were fighting the Russians, and during the civil war when the Taliban were trying to take Kabul, and in Chechnya, Somalia, Kosovo and Bosnia. And at the time I was photographing those stories, I thought they were all separate stories. But at this moment, history crystallized in my mind, and I realized that for 20 years I'd been covering the same story.
James Nachtwey
# posted by Jan-Edward : 10:01
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