"I want my work to become part of our visual history, to enter our collective memory and our collective conscience. I hope it will serve to remind us that history's deepest tragedies concern not the great protagonists who set events in motion but the countless ordinary people who are caught up in those events and torn apart by their remorseless fury. 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
One of the most highly respected documentary photographers working today, James Nachtwey has been an intrepid witness to history, working continuously for almost twenty years photographing human conflict and struggle around the world. James Nachtwey: Testimony is a collection of over 150 images taken between 1981 and the present. This exhibition, comprised primarily of black-and-white photographs, will honor Nachtwey as this year's recipient of the ICP Infinity Award for Photojournalism and will be on view at the International Center of Photography, 1130 Fifth Avenue (at 94th Street), from May 23 through July 23, 2000.
Nachtwey's photo essays tell the story of human dignity and triumph when, as he says, "the powerless stand up to the powerful," and the human spirit survives in spite of horrendous circumstances. His personal diplomacy has assisted him in gaining entry into difficult places, and his patience, fearlessness and humanity have contributed to the creation of iconic photographs of troubled areas around the world.
This exhibition at ICP is accompanied by Inferno (Phaidon Press, 2000), a major publication of Nachtwey's work over the last 10 years. In the introduction, writer Luc Sante says of James Nachtwey: "To do this kind of work requires more than energy, strength, resilience and steady nerves. It also calls for a bedrock belief in human possibility that will hold up despite massive amounts of evidence to the contrary."
Although he is known as a war photographer, Nachtwey considers himself an anti-war photographer who works to create images that attempt to give a voice to those who are being silenced. In Kabul, Afghanistan, 1996, a veiled woman kneels among a field of headstones at the grave of her brother killed in a rocket attack during the ongoing Civil War. In another photograph, deportees from Kosovo appear in a purgatorial ambience as they take shelter beneath a plastic tarpaulin. In Indonesia, intertwined student demonstrators weep with joy as they celebrate the overthrow of a dictator.
James Nachtwey was born in Syracuse, New York in 1948 and studied History of Art and Political Science at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. He joined the Merchant Marine after college in the late 1960s, and although he was not sent to Vietnam, the coverage of that war had a profound effect on him. He realized that still photography gave the true picture of the impact of events in Vietnam and "humanized the war by showing what was happening to ordinary people at ground level." Later, Nachtwey worked as a news film editor for NBC and during this period made the decision to become directly involved photographing events where history was being made. He believed that documenting injustice could be a form of protest and that photography could help to create an atmosphere in which there exists an impetus for change.
Nachtwey started his photographic career in the late 1970s working for a newspaper in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After four years, Nachtwey decided to move to New York City and look for freelance work as a photojournalist. His first assignment came in 1981 covering the IRA hunger strikes in Northern Ireland. This story was Nachtwey's first published international story.
Subsequent years found Nachtwey covering war and conflict in the Middle East (Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza), South Africa, Nicaragua, El Salvador, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Chechnya. He has photographed famine in Sudan and Somalia, genocide in Rwanda, ethnic strife in Sri Lanka, homelessness in Rio de Janeiro, industrial pollution in Eastern Europe, and the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo. His photographs of the devastating conditions in the orphanages in Romania caught the attention of the world, and helped bring about improvements. In the United States, Nachtwey has documented police work in New York, Los Angeles, and New Orleans, and prisons in Alabama. He has been a member of Magnum Photos, the renowned international photography agency, since 1986.
A five-time recipient of the Robert Capa Gold Medal Award‹most recently in 1999 for his spot news coverage of riots in Jakarta‹James Nachtwey has also been the recipient of the Magazine Photographer of the Year award six times. He has received two World Press Photo Awards, The Eugene Smith Memorial Grant, The Leica Award twice and The Bayeaux Award for War Correspondents twice. This year marks his third ICP Infinity Award for Photojournalism; the previous two were awarded in 1989 and 1993. His work has been published in Time, National Geographic, German GEO, and the New York Times Magazine, among others. Deeds of War (Thames and Hudson, 1989), his first publication, documents the most important images from the first decade of Nachtwey's career.
James Nachtwey: Testimony is a traveling exhibition organized by the International Center of Photography, New York City.
The exhibition at ICP is sponsored by Canon and TIME. Additional support was contributed by Mr. and Mrs. Samuel L. Milbank and Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz.
Publication: This exhibition at ICP is accompanied by Inferno (Phaidon Press, March 2000). The 480-page book presents 382 duotone photographs documenting Nachtwey's work over the last 10 years, from the famine in Somalia and the genocide in Rwanda, to war in Bosnia and conflict in Chechnya, to the ethnic strife in Kosovo. Inferno features an introduction by award-winning author Luc Sante, and an afterword by James Nachtwey.
Available at the ICP Museum Store 212 768 4684
Public Programs:
ICP's Week of Photography
An Evening with James Nachtwey
Monday May 8, 7:00pm
ICP Uptown
For more information about James Nachtwey: Testimony, please contact the ICP
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