I have been a witness, and these pictures are my testimony. The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated.
– James Nachtwey
War photography is representation of armed combat
and the current and real situations of war affected areas.
The first war photographer was an anonymous American who took a number of daguerreotypes during the Mexican–American War, in 1847, of the occupation of Saltillo. The first known war photographer is the Hungarian-Romanian Carol Popp de Szathmàri who took photos of various officers in 1853 and of war scenes near Olteni?a and Silistra in 1854, during the Crimean War. About 9 of his pictures survive today. In the late 1850s, Felice Beato traveled to India to photograph scenes of the Siege of Lucknow and the Siege of Delhi. Shortly thereafter, he went to China to record the aftermath of the Second Opium War.
Recognized as one of the most significant contemporary war photographers, and subject of the 2001 Oscar Nominated Documentary Film War Photographer, James Nachtwey has covered armed conflict around the globe. Starting with his first foreign assignment to cover civil strife in Northern Ireland in 1981, Nachtwey devoted himself to documenting wars, conflicts and critical social issues in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza, Israel, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, South Africa, Russia, Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo, Romania and more in an effort to have the events he recorded “not be forgotten, and not be repeated.”