The worst thing is to feel that as a photographer I am benefiting from someone else's tragedy. This idea haunts me. It's something I have to reckon with every day because I know that if I ever allow genuine compassion to be overtaken by personal ambition, I will have sold my soul. The only way I can justify my role is to have respect for the other person's predicament. The extent to which I do that is the extent to which I become accepted by the other; and to that extent, I can accept myself.
James NachtweyThe greatest statesmen, philosophers, humanitarians ... have not been able to put an end to war. Why place that demand on photography?
James Nachtwey[Photography] puts a human face on issues which, from afar, can appear abstract or ideological or monumental in their global impact.
James NachtweyBut everyone cannot be there, and that is why photographers go there - to show them, to reach out and grab them and make them stop what they are doing and pay attention to what is going on - to create pictures powerful enough to overcome the diluting effects of the mass media and shake people out of their indifference - to protest and by the strength of that protest to make others protest.
James Nachtwey