James Nachtwey
American photographer
James Nachtwey was born in 1948, and grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from Dartmouth
College, where he studied Art History and Political Science (1966-70). Images from the Vietnam War and the American Civil
Rights movement had a powerful effect on him and were instrumental in his decision to become a photographer.
He has worked aboard ships in the Merchant Marine, and while teaching himself photography, he was an apprentice news film
editor and a truck driver.
In 1976 he started work as a newspaper photographer in New Mexico, and in 1980, he moved to New York to begin a career as
a freelance magazine photographer. His first foreign assignment was to cover civil strife in Northern Ireland in 1981
during the IRA hunger strike. Since then, Nachtwey has devoted himself to documenting wars, conflicts and critical social
issues. He has worked on extensive photographic essays in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Lebanon, the West Bank and
Gaza, Israel, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda,
South Africa, Russia, Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo, Romania, Brazil and the United States.
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Nachtwey has been a contract photographer with Time Magazine since 1984.
He was associated with Black Star from 1980 - 1985 and was a member of Magnum from 1986 until 2001.
In 2001, he became one of the founding members of the photo agency, VII.
He has had solo exhibitions at New York, Paris, Rome …
He has received numerous honours such as Robert Capa Gold Medal (five times),
the World Press Photo Award (twice), Magazine Photographer of the Year (seven times) and the W. Eugene Smith Memorial
Grant in Humanistic Photography.
Forward of his web site the following sentence :
"I have been a witness, and these pictures aremy testimony.
The events I have recorded should not be
forgotten and must not be repeated."
Rwanda, 1994 - Survivor of Hutu death camp.
© James Nachtwey
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Zimbabwe, 2000 - In a tuberculosis ward where the great majority of the patients suffer from AIDS
© James Nachtwey
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Chechnya, 1996 - Chechen rebel fighting along the front line.
© James Nachtwey
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South Africa, 1992 - Xhosa young men in rite of passage.
© James Nachtwey
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Guatemala, 1983 - Clergy traveled in military helicopters.
© James Nachtwey
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West Bank, 2000 - Palestinians fighting the Israeli army.
© James Nachtwey
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Nicaragua, 1984 - Relic of civil war became a monument in a park.
© James Nachtwey
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Afghanistan, 1996 - Mourning a brother killed by a Taliban rocket.
© James Nachtwey
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Romania, 1990 - An orphanage for incurables
© James Nachtwey
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From my point of view, it is the living greatest war reporter and the hero of the DVD
"War Photographer ", Swiss film of Christian Frei, filmed in 2002..