James Nachtwey: What is his combination?

Recently I've been pouring over the work of the guys at VII, wanting

to be a future war journalist, I know that their work is the work to

study. Of all the members of this great organization, James Nachtwey

is probably the most influential in my photography.

 

What I was wondering was, when he was still shooting film, how did he

get that look. Things seemed dark and grainy, but still popped. I

understand he was using Tri-X, but what was his developer? As I

mentioned in previous posts, I'm using HC-110. Also, did he have a

prefered speed? I am blown away by his Bosnia series, he was able to

retain detail in the sky like it was nobodies business. I usually use

a red filter to do this (losing up to 3 stops), but after watching his

documentary, I noticed he doesn't have any filter.

Any suggestions?

 

His website is http://www.jamesnachtwey.com/ . Check out his Bosnia

series to get an idea of the look I want to achieve.

Don't let the romance blind your vision ... I doubt if Nachtwey even knows what combo he uses, he has his assistant take care of that (well educated assistant)

 

And I'me not sure about the proportion in which, but Nachtwey does use digital, the Bosnia series were indeed very good, but the final prints must of been very timeconsuming to "design" like you said, a skyline with that detail intigrated in a perfectly detailed photograph takes time to develop, hence the assistant ...

It looks like Tri-X developed in D76 to me. My guess is he liked to keep things simple,

plus most news darkrooms used D76, Acufine or HC-110. In a 1991 interview he said he

used a Nikon FM2 and F3P and took 90% of his shots with the 28mm, 35mm or 50mm

lens. Occasionally he used a 20mm and 75-150mm zoom. So you don't need a lot of

expensive lenses to shoot in his style, though that may have changed since the switch to

digital.

Curtis,

 

If you don't have a copy of his book "Deeds of War" and would like one pleae email me offline. I have an extra copy that I would like to sell. Great images....much better than looking at a computer screen. They're all in color and are from all parts of the world. The book is a first edition (it was not reprinted) and in exc. condition with an exc. dust jacket. This book is very hard to find.

Speaking of Nachtwey, if you are interested in his work, and more importantly, how he works, I highly recommend the documentary DVD, "War Photographer." I picked this up a couple of years ago, have watched it several times, and am always enthralled every time I watch it. Much of the video footage was shot with a miniature camera which was mounted on top of Nachtwey's camera, giving the viewer not just an over-the-shoulder perspective of how he works, but indeed a view of how he "sees" his subject. This is as close as one can get without actually looking through the viewfinder with him.

 

Besides the obvious quality of Nachtwey's work, the thing which this documentary always leaves me with is, first, the absolute totality of commitment to his craft, and second, his courage in pursuit of the images in extremely dangerous circumstances.

 

Enthusiasticly recommended!

I was going to recommend "War Photographer" myself. It's a very interesting film. I've always been interested in war photography, and have particularly admired Nachtwey and McCullin.

 

One of the segments in "War Photographer" that interested me was when Nachtwey was reviewing the prints that his assistant had developed and kept sending one great photo back again and again asking for something slightly different each time. It's a great view of doing PhotoShop type enhancements (burning and dodging, and all the other stuff) in the darkroom, for those of us who have only done it on a computer screen.

Curtis,<br>

If you watch "war photographer" you'll see he seems to rate tri-x at 250 (according to his lightmeter and camera settings). It looks pretty consistent with the results he gets, but also implies a lot of work at the printing stage.

I understand as well that as image requirements changed in between b&w reproduction in newspapers and color digital photography, that some press photographers were shooting color film, allowing them the option of b&w or color from the same image.

 

I also know that in places like Chechnya, that there was no assistant, that developing was done using a radiator to get the chemicals up to the right temperature, water was from a puddle filtered through a handkerchief, and that filing took forever given the irregularities of connections and electricity. This from a photographer who shot alongside Nachtwey for many years, including Chechnya where Nachtwey shot the images of the woman shot dead in the snow next to the wooden fence. Add a daily dose of bullets to the mix (in the video, the bullet that entered the cameraman's head in South Africa supposedly parted Nachtwey's hair first) and I think Nachtwey can be forgiven for using an assistant these days if he has one.

I was really surprised that he still shot film (until recently) but the more I thought about it I realized he is more a documentarian type shooter, who doesn't have overnight deadlines, unlike a photojournalist.

 

His assistant in the film I think is just his preferred printer. It looks like he travels solo, and probably just likes the ability of one printer over the other (like Avedon, etc.)

 

You can't really shoot zone system too well with 35, and in the film you see him with an ambient meter taking readings. A combination of bracketing and a good darkroom printer?

 

If you've printed in the darkroom much, you can use variable contrast filters for different areas of the print (split filter printing). Using a grade 0 or 1 for a sky to get detail works well.

 

I attribute much of a finished print to the ability of a good printer!

>What is his combination?

 

A lot of balls--the rest is minutiae.

"wanting to be a future war journalist"

Mmmmmm... imho this is a highly questionable statement. At the very least you should try to become a "peace journalist" like JN himself said. Otherwise you're a peeping tom and a sadistic person who craves seeing other people's death and/or misery.

There's no such a thing as a vocation for becoming a "war journalist", innit? If you think there's anything romantic associated with that you're either too young or "naive" (to use a polite word).

 

If you happen to buy "Deeds of War" you'll realize this book is filled with pix that :

1 - could have been taken by a guy from AP, Reuters or AFP. What I mean by that is JN is A PHOTO-JOURNALIST first and foremost.

2 - have no "strong" content. JN just documented (like Capa) the little quiet meaningless things that happen in a country at war & that's what makes him so great. Sometimes a pic can be impressive even without guns, mortars blood guts, etc

 

Last (but not least) check this good book titled "Requiem" (Ramdom House 1997) about the photographers who died in Indochina between the 50's & the 70's. You'll see LOTS of people have been much less lucky than JN...

Hi Curtis,

 

instead of asking myself what is JN's combo (although I got curious know), I would recommend you to start your own experiments with a film/developer combo you like.

 

It will teach you more than a ready-given solution, and it will help you more getting your own style out of it.

 

I know that HC100 has quite short developing times (I never used it myself), therefore it might not be the best to start experimenting variations... I'd try the classic D76 or Xtol.

 

Red filters... you have always the risk to kill all shadow detail by doing this and it increases contrast too much sometimes, killing the midtones. JN's photos are quite on the low contrast side, with rich midtones.

 

All the best for your photo experiments and your future career.

I'm surprised that no one's mentioned Nachtwey's recent work for Time magazine where his photos accompanied text by Jeffrey Sachs on ending poverty. Nachtwey's work was -- unsurprisingly -- great. The pictures were black-and-white, with a texture that is almost certainly film, not digital.

I recently attended a workshop with James Nachtwey in Cambodia (see VII web-site). H

e uses Canon 1V with 16-35, 24-70, 24 1.4 and 35 1.4. Sometimes he used a Leica

M6 with 35 f2. He uses digital (1Ds MkII) only when time constraint is an issue. He

doesn't have any assistant when he is on assignment but a photo lab working for him

for developing his bw. He is like a monk of photography. You can see a picture of him

with myself at http://homepage.mac.com/giulioz/ then click on Faith at the bottom

of the page you'll see the picture.

 

Giulio

hey giulio:

 

what was it like doing that class with nachtwey? what was the purpose of it (what are

the goals and emphasis of this class)....?

 

must have been fun...

 

--peijin