War and conflict photography has produced visuals that still weigh down on our consciousness. From the image of a vulture trying to approach a little boy in Sudan to the image of a Syrian boy drowned by the sea, each of these pictures has shaken the world, waking us from our reveries. Yet, despite the existence of such photographs, humanity has not changed. To better understand where journalism and war photography stand today, you must hear what legendary photographers Don McCullin and James Natchtwey had to say at the Xposure festival in Sharjah. Their words will certainly leave a deep impact on you and perhaps help you gain more perspective on your career.
Editor’s Note: The Phoblographer was part of the press trip to Xposure in Sharjah. We were invited to see the festival, interact with the photographers, and share our insights with our readers. Since we believe in transparency, we want to let our readers know that the trip was entirely paid for, but this post is not sponsored. We want our readers to learn from the well of knowledge that Don McCullin and James Nachtwey have.
This was the first time two legendary war photographers came together at Xposure to speak about their documentation of human suffering and its impact on them as individuals. One of the things that will stay with you is the clarity of thoughts the two legends had when it came to the role of documenting wars. “I felt guilty. We photographers, we steal, we have the best intentions in the world, but there is a theft in our way of life. We didn’t have people’s permission to photograph when they were dying or when they were ill,” said McCullin to moderator Aidan Sullivan about his journey and the laurels he won due to his work.
And once you discover photography, you fall in love with photography.
…it bosses you around. It makes you do things other normal people don’t do.
…such as wars.
Don McCullin
However, both McCullin and Nachtwey agreed that they had to pay the price of documenting other people’s suffering, one way or another, during their lives. While there is shame and guilt for having survived in places where hundreds or thousands were killed, Nachtwey raised a significant point about why these documents continue to be so important even today: “In most of the difficult places I’ve been where people are suffering from disease or from welfare, they actually want me to be there. They’re glad that someone is there as their messenger because they realize that they’ve been the victim of injustice… and they have been rendered invisible and silenced. And someone has come to them, assuming the same risk that they’re in, to tell their story. And I think they actually want you to be their messenger. So it’s a complex thing. It’s not only about guilt and shame but also understanding that we’re doing something for the people. Any given picture isn’t going to change human nature. We’re not going to end warfare itself, but we can deal with a specific war, a specific conflict, a specific injustice by making the public conscious of it. And by doing it in such a way that we make a human connection that is not just a sterile rendition but it’s actually showing others what their fellow humans are going through. It gets into the public consciousness,” added Nachtwey. In fact, when the public consciousness is shaken and core beliefs are uprooted, it can lead to a positive change.
We should know what is the cost. and the greatest cause of what was the human cause. Other things… you can buy it again. Human lives are much more precious.
James Nachtwey
As the conversation turned towards documenting stories with graciousness and empathy, Don McCullin reflected on a time when he was documenting the Israel-Palestine conflict years ago. He said how a civilian in a war zone attacked him after seeing him take a photograph of her, but when he managed to get back to the hotel, he learned how the woman was killed in a bomb blast. “That day will never leave my memory,” McCullin said. “What is the purpose is the most important question I’ve been asking all my photographic life. I can’t find the answer.” However, Nachtway had a different opinion. He added: “There’s no one answer; it’s neither one way or the other. It’s all of it together. What if these things were happening in the dark? Imagine Gaza happening in the dark. And we never saw that. Imagine Ukraine in the dark. People need to know.” As McCullin rightly said, some of the blame for things remaining unchanged goes to newspapers and magazines that often want leisure and travel photos over gruesome realities of war. And that, over the decades, remains unchanged. “What’s happening though is that the democracy of free speech is going to be eradicated if we don’t fight,” explained Don McCullin.
Last but not least, the conversation turned toward using social media and how AI impacts photojournalism and its veracity. While Nachtwey is of the opinion that “pictures still have a great impact,” McCullin believes that one must blame Hollywood for ‘hardening views’ about the lives of photojournalists and minimizing their efforts. “He and I have been doing the real thing. And they’re giving us stuff to make us believe that we should be entertaining ourselves with this horror. So, there’s an eternal struggle that we will have in our lives to try and turn around the behavior… And we are not gonna make it,” added McCullin.
So, the next time you look at photographs of human suffering, you must realize that the photographers pay a price to bring you stories that will hide behind propaganda. This conversation, thus, is a wake-up call that we must do better as photographers and citizens of democratic nations.
