I admire James Nachtwey. I remember seeing a tv show about him and his work (readers : I you didn’t saw this show, please do a search, it’s an inside look into his work, his workflow, his mind, himself, it is soul-stirring and very instructive : he only uses short range lenses).

Seeing this, I understood that it’s very hard to remain external to what is being pictured, there is some point where you have to get involved as a human being (specially when you have to be very close to your subject to shoot it), and most of all you are alone with your feelings and memories when you get back home (I remember a photo editor saying : “and what his pictures show us is only 10% of what he saw and what he remembers” )

Do you face the same dilemma : staying objective when shooting and still managing to feel the pain, the sadness ?
How hard is it after seeing what one side did to the other to go to the other side and stay objective ?
or do you have a preconception and only stay on one side of the story ?
How hard is it to face those horrors and to carry on with the next thing ?

Olivier.
( sorry if the english is not all good, I am french but I am sure you’ll managed to sort something out of that
and thank you for offering us the opportunity for this )

I know what’s going on (ie. I don’t lead a sheltered life) but I’m really curious how he managed to find himself pursuing this work, and how he remains external to his work? If he does at all? Personally I wouldn’t be able to remain objective – I’d have to get involved. I suppose my main question is, does he view it as work? Or is it more on the side of wanting to make a difference?

I read somewhere (on his website perhaps?) that he aims to make expose what’s going on and I’m keen to here more of his thoughts behind that.

Hopefully you can make a coherent question out of that!