Famine James Nachtwey Analysis

James Nachtwey was born on March 14, 1987 in Syracuse, New York. Nachtwey began his work as a photographer in 1976 because he was heavily influenced by the images depicting the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. He began as a newspaper photographer but in 1980 he moved back to New York from New Mexico to begin a career as a freelance magazine photographer. The first assignment he was given whilst working as a magazine photographer was to document the conflict which was occurring in Northern Ireland at which time the IRA members in the maze went on hunger strike. After covering the conflicts in Northern Ireland he was contracted by Time magazine and has devoted himself to documenting wars, conflicts and major social issues in over 30 countries spanning all across the world even at his own

The image shows a famine victim outside of a feeding center.
The most striking thing about this image was the irony. The main focal piece being the person in this instance who is malnourished and on the verge of dying whilst outside a feeding center. This suggests to the viewer that there isn’t enough food at the feeding centers to feed everyone and at the same time projects the image of people starving all around the world whilst we turn our noses up at food we don’t like and take this basic necessity for granted. Another view which could be obtained from the image is that there isn’t enough sharing among the people in power that have money to the rest of society.
The floor is dry with no visible sign of any life whatsoever which suggests that a reason behind there not being enough food is because of the weather conditions being far too dry to grow any crops. Leading to the fact that because of the climate being too hot to grow crops it would be incredibly uncomfortable for a person in good condition let alone some in such a frail state as depicted in the photograph to