JAMES NACHTWEYdecided to teach himself photography
after seeing images from Vietnam and the Civil Rights
movement. After graduating from Dartmouth he worked as
a truck driver and on merchant ships, acquiring skills
that would prove useful in his chosen occupation. After
working as a newspaper photographer in New Mexico, he
moved to New York in 1980.
He has been a contract photographer with Time Magazine
since 1984, was a member of Magnum from 1986 – 2001,
and is one of the founding members of the photo agency,
VII. David Reiff of the L.A. Times called his book Inferno
“not just a moral triumph but an aesthetic one.”
In 2007 Nachtwey was one of three winners of the TED Prize,
an award “dedicated to ideas worth spreading”.
Nachtwey’s work has been exhibited internationally,
and his numerous honors include the Robert Capa Gold Medal
(five times), the World Press Photo Award (twice), Magazine
Photographer of the Year (seven times), the ICP Infinity
Award (three times), and the Martin Luther King Award.
Along with bravery and perseverance,
Mr. Nachtwey’s pictorial virtue makes him a model
war photographer. He doesn’t mix up his priorities.
His goal is to bear witness, because somebody must,
and his pictures, devised to infuriate and move people
to action, are finally about us, and our concern or
lack of it, at least as much they are about him and
his obvious talents. — Michael Kimmelman, NY Times
"I am a witness and I want my testimony to be
honest and uncensored. I also want it to be powerful
and eloquent and do justice to the people I'm photographing."
— James Nachtwey
