Quote

Photography can be perceived as the opposite of war.

James Nachtwey

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

James Nachtwey
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: March 14
Journalist
Photographer
Photojournalist
War Photographer
Syracuse
New York
Perceived
Opposite
Photographer
Opposites
Photography
War

More quotes by James Nachtwey

Image
I used to call myself a war photographer. Now I consider myself as an antiwar photographer.
James Nachtwey
Image
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.
James Nachtwey
Image
I try to use whatever I know about photography to be of service to the people I'm photographing.
James Nachtwey
Image
You are never freer than in that moment when you decide to expose yourself to sniper fire.
James Nachtwey
Image
It is very hard to say where you're going until you get there. That kind of thing is based very much on instinct. As a photographer, one of the most important lessons I have learnt is that you have to learn to listen to and trust your own instinct. It has helped to guide me - this far at least.
James Nachtwey
Image
I don't believe there's any such thing as objective reality. It's only reality as we experience it.
James Nachtwey
Image
Many people in this world do jobs that are dangerous and where their life is at risk and they feel that there is some kind of value to their job I guess that's how I feel about what I do. There is a social function to documentary photography that is very important and it requires people to take risks.
James Nachtwey
Image
There is a job to be doneto record the truth. I want to wake people up!
James Nachtwey
Image
If you make an honest picture of war, it will be an antiwar photograph.
James Nachtwey
Image
If I can upset people, if I can ruin their day, then I have done my job.
James Nachtwey
Image
If Im feeling outraged, grief, disbelief, frustration, sympathy, that gets channeled through me and into my pictures and hopefully transmitted to the viewer.
James Nachtwey
Image
[Photography] puts a human face on issues which, from afar, can appear abstract or ideological or monumental in their global impact.
James Nachtwey
Image
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.
James Nachtwey
Image
If you want to connect with people who are in distress and great grief and scared, you need to do it in a certain way. I move kind of slow. I talk kind of slow. I let them know that I respect them.
James Nachtwey
Image
For me, the strength of photography lies in its ability to evoke humanity. If war is an attempt to negate humanity, then photography can be perceived as the opposite of war.
James Nachtwey
Image
I want my pictures to cut through political abstractions... and make a connection on a human level.
James Nachtwey
Image
Photojournalists know the horrors of war can only be exposed at close range. Kodak Film.
James Nachtwey
Image
I became a photographer in order to be a war photographer, and a photographer involved in what I thought were critical social issues. From the very beginning this was my goal.
James Nachtwey
Image
The greatest statesmen, philosophers, humanitarians ... have not been able to put an end to war. Why place that demand on photography?
James Nachtwey
Image
I'm half deaf. I have nerve damage and a constant ringing in both of my ears, and there are certain times and conditions when I can hardly hear at all.
James Nachtwey