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Friday, 18 February 2004, 8 pm

Shock and Awe - Images of War between Documentation and Ideology

Christian Frei: "war photographer"

"... and that is why photographers go there - to show them, to reach out and grab them and make them stop what they are doing and pay attention to what is going on - to create pictures powerful enough to overcome the diluting effects of the mass media and shake people out of their indifference - to protest and by the strength of that protest to make others protest."
James Nachtwey, Why photograph war?, 1985

The Swiss writer, director and producer Christian Frei followed the war reporter James Nachtwey for two years through the war zones of Indonesia, Kosovo and Palestine. Nachtwey has earned a cult status in the world of war reporting and has »not missed a single war« in the last 20 years. He is considered the »bravest and best war photographer ever«. For his Oscar-nominated documentary Christian Frei mounted special micro-cameras onto James Nachtwey's camera to provide insight into the motivation, fears and the everyday life of the American photographer: "We see a famous photographer looking for the decisive moment. We hear every breath of the photographer. For the first time in the history of movies about photographers, this technique allowed an authentic insight into the work of a concerned photo-journalist."
Christian Frei www.war-photographer.com

Born in 1959 in Switzerland, Frei studied visual media as part of his journalism and communication studies at the University of Freiburg in Germany. He was worked regularly for the Swiss television station SF DRS since 1984. war photographer has won numerous prizes.