The photographer I have chosen for Photographer of the Week is Pulitzer Prize winner Javier Manzano. Born in Mexico, he moved to the United States when he was 18. He worked for Rocky Mountain News as a photojournalist until they closed in 2009, sense then he has been freelancing. Specializing in documentary film and still photography, he is currently based in the Middle East. The images he captures are strong, and give this overwhelming rush of emotions. You are instantly transported to that time, and given a closer look to situations of war and conflict that we, as U.S. citizens, are mostly shielded from. Manzano is well known for his coverage of the country's drug wars in the Afghanistan and Syria. However, a large focus of his work focused on border crossing issues.
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After reading the prelude and chapter 1 of Lyndsey Addario's "It's What I Do" I couldn't stop there. It's the first non-textbook I have read in awhile. The intensity of the prelude sucks you into her beautiful, exciting, adventurous, and dangerous life. A photographer in the middle of war, capturing glimpses of this world unfamiliar to me, and at suck risk that she might not live to tell them. She's brave, ambient, driven, and wonderful. I really like this book. What impresses me about her is, at the start of chapter one she starts with a backstory of her parents and her life as an eight year old, and as the story goes on, and she ages, getting her first camera, studying abroad, she seems so aware of herself and her surroundings. What impresses me most about the book is how the story is told. It paints her story so vividly, as if it's a memory replay and I'm standing along side her.
When Addario talks about photographic the mothers who's children disappeared during the Argentina's Dirty War, she expresses she didn't know what it took to have good composition in a photo or how to read light. Each week she returned, showing that persistence is key. Taking what didn't go so well the first try to adjust and try again. The assignment with the transgender-prostitutes she doesn't use her camera at first, Addario gets to know them, gaining their trust. This shows that warming up and getting to know a bit about who or what your photographing, pays off by being able to get closer, more intimate.
My favorite quote, so far, is "I didn't wring my hands with seemingly enormous decisions. I just saw the door and went through it." It further shows her venturous and 'take life by the bull' personality, which I admire. I can't pick just one of her photos and say its my favorite. I look at a photo of a mother holding her baby, dehydrated, and being offered food from children and it bring tears to my eyes. Then there is another image she has captured, men with guns, rage in their face, open desert and a car burning behind them. The angle at which this photo is taken, the contrast of blue sky and the deep black smoke, all captured so perfectly. Looking at this photo you are told the story of men who are fighting to protect what they have. I can't choose just one of her photos, maybe if I didn't know a little bit of the story behind them I wouldn't register just how impactful this picture is and I could choose a photo based on aesthetics; but I can't.
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