What Remains / War Photographer

Before I had seen their respective documentaries, I was not familiar with either photographers’ work. Sally Mann is a fine art photographer based in Virginia, some of her work housed in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, among other well-known institutions. On the other hand, James Nachtwey is a photojournalist who has had his work documenting worldwide struggle and conflict printed in renowned newspaper and magazine publications. What is remarkable about these two photographers is their representation of the versatility of photography as a medium. Photography is, at once, many things, but first and foremost, it is a means of documentation.

Consider Mann—the majority of her work, including her most well-known series, Immediate Family, showcases her family and children. There is this intent in her work to capture the liveliness of those she knows best. Most of her photographs are taken in places familiar to her; namely, her home and the town in which she lives. The work itself is highly personal. Moreover, she shoots with a large format land camera, an archaic technology. Her photographs, printed from glass plate negatives, have a quality of being staunchly real and unedited, as if she has captured the soul of her subject. She is much more concerned with her craft and capturing work that speaks to her instead of focusing on the end product and where she'll show next. Although, as seen in "What Reminds," being able to show one's work to a public is important to most artists, including Mann. 

For James Nachtwey, his photographs are driven by his concern for something greater than himself and striving to be deeper in reality—that is, taking part in the events he captures in his photographs and refusing to merely be an observer. He practices his activism against war and conflict with his photography and it is a goal of his to have his images shown in publications that will reach wide audiences. He works very differently from Mann, so much so that it is hard to believe either of these creators have anything in common. It is true, however, that both work with the captured image, and each represents very separate uses of the camera and its processes. Comparing the two makes it easy to see that photography has many uses and raises the question on whether or not there are uses for photography that have not yet been discovered or explored in depth.