43 Quotes by James Nachtwey

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

I want to record history through the destiny of individuals who often belong to the least wealthy classes. I do not want to show war in general, nor history with a capital H, but rather the tragedy of a single man, of a family.

Photojournalists know the horrors of war can only be exposed at close range. Kodak Film.

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.

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

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

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

But 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.

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.