Exhibition Review: James Nachtwey's Memoria
West Bank, Ramallah, 2000 © James Nachtwey Archive, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth
Written by Michelle O’Malley
Edited by Jana Massoud
Moved by the images of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement, James Nachtwey began his photography career in 1976 and has been a contract photographer for Time since 1984, his work spanning across twenty five nations. Though he is known for capturing conflicts at their centers, the renowned artist considers himself an “anti-war photographer”. Nachtwey has courageously recorded some of the gravest and most inhumane events to have occurred; the Rwandan genocide, September 11th, 2001, global health issues such as TB and HIV/AIDS, heroin addiction in America, famines and homelessness, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, crime and punishment, natural disasters, as well as refugee migration. He asserts, “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”. In his most recent exhibition, Memoria, Nachtwey carefully arranges his expansive work to reflect the element that has always tied it together, humanity, in its most raw and unyielding forms. Photography, Nachtwey avows, is able to express this bond and that is its power.
Soudan, Darfour, 2003 © James Nachtwey Archive, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth
In preventing the life shattering transgressions people have experienced from becoming mere stories referenced to in news outlets or textbooks, Nachtwey diligently sets out to “observe and interpret” these atrocities. Conscious of the phenomenon of tragic events lapsing into hushed past realites, the photographer employs his keen sense of human expression to illuminate those referenced as “witnesses or victims” as individuals, rather than as numbers to be factored into a report.
Humanity emanates through every photograph, whether that be a hand grasping another through a barbed fence in the Balkans, a single eye peeking from beneath a blanket in a feeding center in Sudan, an outstretched hand inserting a needle into a tensed arm, tears trickling from a refugee woman’s eyes as she stares dead-on at the camera, or a young Rwandan man turning his head to the side, revealing gruesome scars extending from across his cheek to his head. Be it a businessman with a black cap and a briefcase lifting his gaze towards a great cloud of smoke where the South tower of the World Trade Center once proudly stood, the tip of a gun pointed directly at the back of a man’s neck, or a mortally wounded man, dead or alive, we’re not sure, carried out off a jungle in Nicaragua, shirtless with his arms limply outstretched, a scene uncannily reminiscent of Christ’s crucifixion. All of these moments combined come to shape the history we as a society know. Yet, despite all this terribleness, reality moves onward, and with pain comes growth.
New York, 2001 © James Nachtwey Archive, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth
Nachtwey’s voice overs echo through the exhibition, solidifying the suggestion that viewers are witnessing the works alongside the photojournalist himself, the photographs’ effect nearly as visceral as the moments themselves. As every fragment of memory confronts us dead on, without caution, we realize we are experiencing what Nachtwey sets out to inspire, utter dismay for mankind followed by reflection. Our initial shock must be felt, so that maybe, just maybe, we can reflect on societies’ past mistakes and prevent crimes against humanity from occurring once more.
James Nachtwey has been the recipient of multiple awards throughout his career including the Overseas Press Club’s Robert Capa Gold Medal five times and the World Press Photo Award twice. He is currently in Ukraine, documenting the Russian invasion. Memoria will be on display at Fotografiska New York through August 14th. To experience more of Nachtwey’s work, visit his website here.
