If your pictures aren't good enough, you are not close enough.

This entry's title are words from Robert Capa. These same words are the ones you'll see on the opening of the documentary film War Photographer. 

  

The film follows the life of photojournalist James Nachtwey on the field. From the first scenes to the very last part of the movie, you will see him in action: camera at hand, photographing away. It shows scenes from several of his assignments, what he does post-assignment, as well as interviews with some of the people he worked with.

I had some questions in my mind while watching the film. A lot of the images shot were those of people grieving about lost homes and lives of their loved ones. It was a bit uncomfortable watching him taking pictures of these people crying and in despair. There were times when he was inches from their faces. Don’t these people feel violated or something?

There was another thing on my mind regarding photojournalists, media people in general. What is their intention? Is it to get stories that would get them up their career ladder? It is for the awards and recognition? Is it pure documentation? For the love of gathering and disseminating information? Isn’t it disturbing to be paid documenting other people’s suffering? Then I thought to myself, doesn’t everybody in any field want even a bit of recognition? It is their livelihood, so naturally they’d get paid. Nachtwey addressed these in the film.

Seeing this movie opened my eyes to the real dangers of such occupation. I find myself asking "How do you do it?" How does one operate with poverty, starvation, chaos, death right in front of you? I really like this film for it addresses this concerns, it answered every question that popped in my head.

I watched this for the fifth time today, I guess. It struck me just the same as the first time. It was just plain powerful, honest, true. I admire you, Mr. Nachtwey. I admire you for your work and for your words. You are one brave, compassionate, determined soul. May you continue to inspire and help people with your photographs.

This is one man who got close enough, don't you think Mr. Capa?

The worst thing is to feel that as a photographer, I am benefiting from someone else’s tragedy. This idea haunts me. It’s something I have to reckon with everyday because I know that if I ever allowed genuine compassion to be overtaken by personal ambition, I would have sold my soul. The only way I could justify my role is to have respect for the other person’s predicament. The extent to which I do that is the extent to which I become accepted by the other. And to that extent, I can accept myself.

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All images are screenshots from the movie.