Deeds of War

Deeds of War is a visual examination of human compassion against the backdrop of war torn countries, a theme James Nachtwey has always pursued through his photographs. A collection of Nachtwey's work from all across the globe from 1981 in Northern Ireland to Sudan in 1988, this is Nachtwey's first solo book and a clear statement of his significance and determination to capture the moment in war in which words simply cannot illustrate. Robert Stone's insightful introduction to the book describes the horrors of confronting war. He writes about Nachtwey's method of rendering terror through the "pathetic artifacts of everyday lives" in war. Nachtwey finds an Irish mother casually pushing her child in a stroller while a truck burns in the street behind her. Nachtwey has a penchant for finding the eerie punctum of a fleeting moment in the midst of chaos. I was struck by an image of a man holding a boy's badly burned corpse from a car explosion in Lebanon. The man looks so emotionally removed from what he is doing it's frightening. As the title implies, the deeds of war profoundly affect everyone in its destructive path, and not just soldiers.Seeing this book through the perspective of James Nachtwey's later career, Deeds of War may not be his best work, but nonetheless an important milestone in contemporary war photography. Unfortunately, the sequencing of the book frequently draws too many similarities to the previous images, taking away the impact each photograph might have on the viewer. Regardless, James Nachtwey's Deeds of War is a riveting investigation of human mortality and the devastating consequences of violence.

James Nachtway is arguably the best war photographer working in the past two decades. His remarkable vision trandscends mere news photography into a personal expression of a true artist, not unlike Goya. This early collection of his work is a must for any follower of Nachtwey.It is a tribute to his spirit that he continues to work, bearing witness to some of the most horrific wars of our times. He does so without being a voyeur, but as a gentle and compassionate witness to a world where most of us would fear to tread.