Deeds of War By James Nachtwey | Photography Book Recommendation By Edge Of Humanity Magazine

The work in this book immortalizes images of war, survival, struggles, and defiance. The photographs bring us back to wars from the 1980s and is a historic representation of action on the ground. Wars are bloody and full of death. The images of the dead and partially decomposed bodies are raw; and they allow you to smell the stench.

From the streets of Bethlehem, and West Beirut, to the surreal image of parents strolling a toddler by a nearby truck on fire in Belfast, (page 58-59), one feels transported to the past and at a lost for words. The environmental portraits of civilians and the military personal from Nicaragua and San Salvador depicts apparent peace during their daily encounters.

There are also a few pages dedicated to religious content. The contrasting scene varies between clergy members ready to take off from a heavily armed helicopter in Guatemala City (91), to soldiers kneeling and holding on to their guns in Nicaragua, and Muslims in Afghanistan placing their weapons between their legs during prayer.

My favorite image, page 25, is a portrait of two soldiers, Souk-el-Gharb, Lebanon, 1983.

The book also contains images from wars/conflicts in: Sinai, South Korea, Occupied West Bank 1988, Uganda, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Honduras, Sudan, India, Soviet Union and South Carolina in the USA, all images from the 1980s.

Deeds of War