sept 11 . manipulation and the nachtwey photos

Unfortunately, the Bush administration used the emotional power of the images of 9/11, including mine, to justify and gather support for an ill-conceived invasion of Iraq, a country that had absolutely no connection to the attack on 9/11. So things get manipulated in all kinds of ways.

– James Nachtwey from “Revisiting 9/11: Unpublished Photos by James Nachtwey” 9/7/2011 (TIME)

 Is it possible that actually surviving that day didn’t necessarily save America from becoming a shadow of its former self?

http://www.bagnewsnotes.com/2012/09/james-nachtweys-911-eleven-years-later-like-night-and-day/


I wonder how Nachtwey gets away with this stuff. I guess the photo editors consider him more of an art photographer than a documentary photographer or photojournalist, but why not then label his photos as such? It's often said in the fashion photography world, that behind every great photographer is a great retoucher. I wonder how many of Nachtwey's many fans realize how great a role post-prodution plays in the images he produces.

https://plus.google.com/100073645661563176484/posts/NDsBhHKYnbk



One of the things that made 9/11 different from many of the battlefields where Nachtwey has worked for the past 30 years was that he wasn’t seeing the bodies of the dead. “The absence of bodies put your heart in your throat, understanding how great the loss must be. There was no one to rescue, no one to treat. They were all underneath the wreckage, and they were all dead.”

Read more: http://lightbox.time.com/2011/09/07/revisiting-911-unpublished-photos-by-james-nachtwey/#ixzz26MP7AiEo
http://lightbox.time.com/2011/09/07/revisiting-911-unpublished-photos-by-james-nachtwey/#1