Essay on Annie Leibovitz and James Nachtwey

Annie Leibovitz and James Nachtwey are both photographers who make their living by taking pictures with cameras but what they see through lens is totally different from each other. Annie Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer and James Nachtwey is a War photographer. While Leibovitz sees the whole life in general through her camera lens, Nachtwey’s camera is more focused on capturing images of wars, conflicts and critical social issues.

The motivation, which made both of them to hold camera and start shooting pictures was not the same and I guess that is why they see different things through the same camera lens. Annie Leibovitz studied painting before she become interested in taking pictures and with her enthusiastic personality, she developed her skill and started her work in Rolling Stone. Her job is to portrait celebrities. Leibovitz’s works that she made by working with famous celebrities and shooting their pictures seem to be very beautiful, attractive, unique, dynamic and creative. Those modifiers would not have been applied if there wasn’t her inspiration and carefully considered ideas. She creates greatness out of normal, plain situation which could have been really boring. After watching all the process of works that she had gone through with Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Bette Midler, Patti Smith, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg and so on, I could sense that she has some magic power that makes people comfortable and then brings out their inner characteristics, personalities, humor, irony but also insecurities. Bette, John, Demi, Whoopi and all the other people could have said “no” to Leibovitz’s difficult demands, but they were all willing to give out their essence to her.

Annie Leibovitz - Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rob Besserer, Cumberland Island, Georgia, 1990.

Annie Leibovitz has a magic power to make celebrities into her slave without offending them.

Annie Leibovitz - Arnold Schwarzengger, Sun Valley, Idaho, 1997.

Annie Leibovitz tells Arnold Schwarzenegger, "Cold, pain is short term, but the great shot is permanent!"

On the other hand, James Nachtwey studied art history and political science and then he was evoked by images of the Vietnam War, which made him to choose this dangerous path War photographer as a job. His job is to picture the reality at battle zone and let the rest of the world to know, be aware of the incident. In the battle zone, conflict zone, he captures cruelty, sadness, pain and poverty into pictures. People in his picture also do not say “no” to him, as he shows sign of respect and make the subject comfortable. Besides, for them, having pictures taken by Nachtwey is way to give their voice out to the world. Nachtwey, he himself, also seems to have strong belief that he can convince the world with his photos as form of communication and the photos become powerful antidote to war.

James Nachtwey - Haiti Earthquake, Jan 2010.
Earthqueak, Pray, International Aid...

Pushing the limit, Being close enough!

He says, “If your pictures are not good enough, you are not close enough.” While it can be said that Leibovitz tries to get close to the individuals, what Nachtwey tries to do is getting closest to the event, incident and the victims of the incidents.

In the way of pushing the limit, both photographers seem to have common point. When shooting, Leiovitz push her limits and demands bigger and bigger things to celebrities, which seem to be almost impossible to make, but she eventually achieve what she wants. In the case of Nachtwey, actually, there seems to be no limit. He just jumps into battleground and starts to shoot and then comes out with best shots. In addition to the point of pushing the limits, the two photographers also seems to know how to control their emotion and how to handle the situation or event that they care about. When Susan Sontag died, Leibovitz did not turn away from the reality, but took picture of the dead body and showed her own way of love and respect to her loving one. Nachtwey, also, in front of countless dead bodies and crying woman who lost her son in crisis, he just took picture without being emotionally stirred. He just expresses all his sadness and emotions through his photos.

Annie Leibovitz - Susan Sontag, Leaving Seattle, November 15, 2004.
I wonder what kind of mind she had when she took this picture.

James Nachtwey

It is my hobby to collect magazines and journals like ‘Times’ or ‘Newsweek’. Whenever I read them, I can see the pictures of movie posters or news about crisis and massacres. I have never thought about those images so seriously. I just took the images for granted or sometimes ignored since I had no idea how those pictures were being taken. But, now I know, so, sorry for taking the photographers' passion and inspirations as a granted! I now know that their great works are living well inside the magazines and journals!

Reference

1st picture is from
http://www.npg.org.uk:8080/annieleibovitz/exhib.htm

2nd picture is from
http://www.iphotocentral.com/andrewsmith/search/detail.php/256/Annie+Leibovitz/0/AL-1405

3rd picture is from
http://viiphoto.wg.picturemaxx.com/webgate/index.php

4th picture
http://fotophil.wordpress.com/2008/05/09/what-we-do-to-get-the-shot/#comments

5th picture
http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/10/sides_of_susan_sonta_1

6th picture
http://www.oneworldinschools.cz/index2en.php?id=286

Japanese People

I do not even know what kind of characteristic people in my nation has. I just thought the characteristics totally depend on person to person, so we can not really generalize it. But, here I met a Japanese girl who knows about her own nation people’s characteristic and had deep thought about how people from outside of Japan think about it.

This is one of my closest Japanese friends, Marina Ikemoto. Marina is the first Kansai Gaidai student whom I got to know, even before I come to Japan. We became to know each other because of each other’s friends’ introduction. One of my friend who went to Finland as an exchange student met a Kansai Gaidai student there and the Kansai Gaidai students introduced Marina to me. What a small world, all linked together!

Her nickname is Mochu which her friends made out from her last name and here I can surely see Japanese people’s tendency to make words short, easy to call. These days she said that she is busy keep on doing job hunting, since this year is her last year in the university. She has been participating in many kinds of company seminars and has already send résumé to several companies. I am same age with her, and about this point, she really makes me to look back at myself now. Marina loves ko ta chu, sushi and the touching songs of 東方神起 (Dong-Bang-Shin-Gi: A Korean idol group). Including Marina, I have seen many Japanese girls who love 東方神起, and interestingly, most of them said that they not only like the song or appearance of the group, but also like about the close membership, relationship that the group keeps on having while they were working in Japan for five years. Not like playboy style, but the reliable (まじめ) side of the group may have touched Japanese girls’ heart.

Marina has very mature and emotional personality, but also having weak mind and shyness. She gets especially shy when she talks with other Japanese people whom she does not know very well. She said that she becomes more careful with Japanese people than foreigners. Even though there are some different behaviors or actions made while communicating with foreigners, it can be understood. The concept of ‘cultural difference’ makes the behavior understandable. However, if those different behaviors were made in front of Japanese people, they would definitely see him or her strangely. Marina also told me one situation that she experienced while she was in Australia as an exchange student. In Australia, she met a Korean boy who hates Japanese because he thinks that Japanese people have two sided face which brings confusion to the listener. Marina also agreed that Japanese people do have politeness and smile all the time, but those may not really come out from their true heart. According to her, speaking directly seems to be very rude between Japanese people, and even between close friends. Ever since there is some notion that advice can be given from higher status person to lower status person, Marina told me that friends, who are in same status should be very careful about giving advice to each other unless it can be regarded very rude.

In the end of conversation, I asked her what she thinks about those kinds of Japanese culture, and she said it is sometimes uncomfortable even for her, but she also sees good side of this culture especially in business world as there would be less argument without any direct talking.

First picture is borrowed from this website:

http://www.dreamstime.com/question-mark-box-thumb1317187.jpg