I guess that a lot of people have seen James Nachtwey's book "Inferno" (which I can't find a copy of it around here in new condition) and his other book "Civil Wars". I presume that the book "Inferno" is an extension of the first one?

Would I be correct in presuming that Nachtwey's book is an all-encompassing saga of 1990's political corruption and oppression and genocide in very unstylized terms?

Also, what is Nachtwey's Leica outfit? I presume M6.

Alfie

-- Alfie Wang (leica_phile@hotmail.com), December 11, 2001

Answers

Why presume that Natchwey uses an M6? Great photojournalism can be taken with any kind of camera. FYI, he uses Canon.

-- Richard Le (rvle@yahoo.com), December 11, 2001.

I should clarify my last statement. At one point, I believe that Natchwey used a Leica (M or R, I don't know), but he uses Canon (EOS something or another) for the most part and for quite some time. Everytime I've seen him or seen pictures of him, he's got Canon.

-- Richard Le (rvle@yahoo.com), December 11, 2001.

"Civil Wars" is a tabloid-sized special edition of one of the German newsweeklies, and features very good reproductions of some of Nachtwey's work from Chechnya and Afghanistan. All the captions are in German, but even if you don't speak the language, the pictures speak for themselves.

"Inferno," on the other hand, is a massive collection of his work from several countries---if you have the misfortune to drop it one your foot, you won't walk for a month. Very strong pictures, heightened by a lot of double-page spreads. There is some overlap of content between the two, except that I don't believe "Inferno" features any of his Afghan work.

I have no idea what sort of camera he uses but, looking at the photos, it's really irrelevant.

-- Chuck Albertson (chucko@siteconnect.com), December 11, 2001.