This is a great film. My friend David is just off camera during the segment on the ANC fighting in South Africa when Nachtwey gets his hair parted by a zipping bullet. The other photographer is not so lucky. David says that Nachtwey is actually pretty fussy about his hair, and he used to take great pleasure in messing it up each time he saw him.
Did you notice how often he uses a handheld meter? Here, he is still shooting film, the switch to digital coming shortly thereafter (again, according to David.) I wonder if he still uses a handheld with digital. Notice too, no girly-boy Leica to be seen anywhere.
I really like the printing session where Nachtwey keeps sending the printer back to work on the separation of the kid's head from the background. Or where Nachtwey looks at his negatives against a window pane. We don't need no stinkin' light box!
BTW, one of the great photographers in VII, Alexandra Boulat, died last year from a brain hemorrhage. I can't remember whether she is in this film, but that is one more person Nachtwey has out-survived. Must not be fun to outlive your friends over and over again. I know that is one reason David got out.
