James Nachtwey

James Nachtwey
James Nachtweyis an American photojournalist and war photographer...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPhotographer
Date of Birth14 March 1948
CountryUnited States of America
photography powerful media
But everyone cannot be there, 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.
powerful war military
The pictures that were coming from Vietnam were showing us what was really happening on the ground level. It was in contradiction to what our political and military leaders were telling us. They were straight forward documentary images. A powerful indictment of the war, of how cruel and unjust it was. When I finally decided what to do with my life, it was to follow in that tradition.
gets hopefully pictures sympathy
If I'm feeling outraged, grief, disbelief, frustration, sympathy, that gets channeled through me and into my pictures and hopefully transmitted to the viewer.
grief frustration feelings
If Im feeling outraged, grief, disbelief, frustration, sympathy, that gets channeled through me and into my pictures and hopefully transmitted to the viewer.
paris needs
Do we really need another picture of Paris Hilton or Naomi Campbell?
photography cutting political
I want my pictures to cut through political abstractions... and make a connection on a human level.
photography war opposites
Photography can be perceived as the opposite of war.
editors giving events
None of the editors I've worked with have ever asked me to pull my punches. They've never asked me to give them anything other than my own interpretation of events.
thinking tragic situation
I dont think tragic situations are necessarily devoid of beauty.
war honest photograph
If you make an honest picture of war, it will be an antiwar photograph.
photography college years
I began after college, about 1972. I began to teach myself photography. I went to work for a local newspaper for four years as a kind of basic training.
animal mass-destruction people
Starvation and disease are the original weapons of mass destruction. When you burn fields and kill animals, people are left vulnerable.
photography war destiny
I want to record history through the destiny of individuals who often belong to the least wealthy classes. I do not want to show war in general, nor history with a capital H, but rather the tragedy of a single man, of a family.
photography war horror
Photojournalists know the horrors of war can only be exposed at close range. Kodak Film.