Nachtwey Quotes

#1. Photographer James Nachtwey has spent his professional life in the places people most want to avoid: war zones and refugee camps, the city flattened by an earthquake, the village swallowed by a flood, the farm hollowed out by famine.

Nancy Gibbs

#2. I have been a witness, and these pictures are my testimony. The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated.

James Nachtwey

#3. Is it possible to put an end to a form of human behavior which has existed throughout history by means of photography? The proportions of that notion seem ridiculously out of balance. Yet, that very idea has motivated me.

James Nachtwey

#4. 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

#5. If I'm feeling outraged, grief, disbelief, frustration, sympathy, that gets channeled through me and into my pictures and hopefully transmitted to the viewer.

James Nachtwey

#6. When the truth is spoken, it doesn't need to be adorned. It just needs to be simply stated, and often it only needs to be said once.

James Nachtwey

#7. Wylan looked as if he was ready to wet himself. Helvar appeared grim as always. Jesper just grinned and whispered, Well, we've managed to get ourselves locked into the most secure prison in the world. We're either geniuses or the dumbest sons of bitches to ever breathe air.

Leigh Bardugo

#8. At a time when there's younger writers starting up and it's inevitable that you're becoming less fashionable, at a time when the industrial pressures apply more and more to books, how do you keep a book you wrote 28 years ago selling well year on year? Because it really is getting harder.

William Boyd

#9. If there is something occurring that is so bad that it could be considered a crime against humanity, it has to be transmitted with anguish, with pain, and create an impact in people - upset them, shake them up, wake them out of their everyday routine.

James Nachtwey

#10. I don't think tragic situations are necessarily devoid of beauty.

James Nachtwey

#11. 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

#12. The sport of horse racing which, at its best, showcases the majestic beauty of this animal and the athleticism of jockeys, has reached an alarming level of corruption and exploitation.

Tom Udall

#13. I used to call myself a war photographer. Now I consider myself as an antiwar photographer.

James Nachtwey

#14. [Photography] puts a human face on issues which, from afar, can appear abstract or ideological or monumental in their global impact.

James Nachtwey

#15. If I can upset people, if I can ruin their day, then I have done my job.

James Nachtwey

#16. She carried the burn of the sun on her body. It was for all of those wasted, dull years.

Jean-Marie G. Le Clezio

#17. 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

#18. I don't believe there's any such thing as objective reality. It's only reality as we experience it.

James Nachtwey

#19. 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

#20. Do we really need another picture of Paris Hilton or Naomi Campbell?

James Nachtwey

#21. There is a job to be doneto record the truth. I want to wake people up!

James Nachtwey

#22. I try to use whatever I know about photography to be of service to the people I'm photographing.

James Nachtwey

#23. It was psychobabbler Abraham Maslow who wrote of the phenomena of self-actualization. What Maslow failed to grasp is that reaching true self-actualization can only be ultimately achieved when you have your own brand of ammunition.

Ted Nugent

#24. 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

#25. You are never freer than in that moment when you decide to expose yourself to sniper fire.

James Nachtwey

#26. The greatest statesmen, philosophers, humanitarians ... have not been able to put an end to war. Why place that demand on photography?

James Nachtwey

#27. 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

#28. 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

#29. Starvation and disease are the original weapons of mass destruction. When you burn fields and kill animals, people are left vulnerable.

James Nachtwey