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Photographer James Nachtwey - The Story Breaks

Photographer James Nachtwey

James Nachtwey, one of the world’s greatest photojournalists and winner of the 2007 TED Prize, received “one wish to change the world”:
“I’m working on a story that the world needs to know about. I wish for YOU to help me break it, in a way that provides spectacular proof of the power of news photography in the digital age - James Nachtwey”

A badge on your blog can help spread this vital story. Add this badge to your own site to help build excitement for the breaking story on Oct. 3

James Nachtwey is preparing to reveal his photographs, which highlight a shocking and underreported global crisis. Over the past 18 months, the TED community have been working with James to gain access to locations he wished to photograph, and to prepare spectacular plans for unveiling these pictures.

Help spread the word: It’s a story the world needs to know, please help to tell it. Even a small effort can have an enormous impact on sharing James Nachtwey’s story. Please visit THIS SITE and post the badge on your web site, blog, or social networking profile, embed James Nachtwey’s TED Prize wish video, or email a link to the site to your family and friends. On October 3, the story breaks … and we would like you to witness it. 

See the photographs on LED screens on all 7 continents: New York City - London - Los Angeles - Hong Kong - Sydney - Toronto - Port Elizabeth - Rio de Janeiro - Istanbul - Seoul - Berlin - Amsterdam - Milan  - Zurich - Montevideo - Antarctica … see detailed listing http://www.tedprize.org/nachtwey/eventlocation.html

• Time Magazine is running this story as an 8-page spread to be released the day of this worldwide event.
• PR Newswire has committed to time on the Reuters screen in Times Square, to create press around the event and to display the images on the evening of OCT 3rd
• TEDsters Jon Kamen, David Rockwell and Stefan Sagmeister acted as the creative trust, developing the idea and the design around the idea, including the slideshow created by Sagmeister and the architecture of the displays, created by Rockwell.
• Clinton Foundation and Partners in Health have been responsible for getting James access to Health Ministries in a number of different countries, allowing him to shoot stories that have been intentionally kept in the dark.
• TEDsters Bob and Colleen Benoit from Mode Studios, have acted as lead producers, helping to package the exhibition model to spread out to global partners.
•  Mode Studios is going to produce the NYC event, which will act as the cornerstone of the global display.
• Scharff Weisberg will provide the production equipment.
• List of all production partners http://www.tedprize.org/nachtwey/productionpartners.html

Afghanistan, 1996 - Mourning a brother killed by a Taliban rocket © James Nachtwey

About James Nachtwey :

Photojournalist James Nachtwey is considered by many to be the greatest war photographer of recent decades. He has covered conflicts and major social issues in more than 30 countries. For the past three decades, James Nachtwey has devoted himself to documenting wars, conflicts and critical social issues.

Nachtwey has been a contract photographer with Time since 1984. However, when certain stories he wanted to cover — such as Romanian orphanages and famine in Somalia — garnered no interest from magazines, he self-financed trips there. He is known for getting up close to his subjects, or as he says, “in the same intimate space that the subjects inhabit,” and he passes that sense of closeness on to the viewer.

Sudan, 1993 - Famine victim in a feeding center © James Nachtwey

In putting himself in the middle of conflict, his intention is to record the truth, to document the struggles of humanity, and with this, to wake people up and stir them to action.

He is the winner of the 2007 TED Prize, awarding him $100,000 and one wish to change the world. This was his wish: “I’m working on a story that the world needs to know about. I wish for you to help me break it in a way that provides spectacular proof of the power of news photography in the digital age.”

Pakistan, 2001 - A rehab center for heroin addicts © James Nachtwey

James Nachtwey - The Witness

“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 grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from Dartmouth College, where he studied Art History and Political Science (1966-70). Images from the Vietnam War and the American Civil Rights movement had a powerful effect on him and were instrumental in his decision to become a photographer.

Zaire, 1994 - Hutu refugees were struck by cholera and buried in mass © James Nachtwey

In 1976 he started work as a newspaper photographer in New Mexico, and in 1980, he moved to New York to begin a career as a freelance magazine photographer. His first foreign assignment was to cover civil strife in Northern Ireland in 1981 during the IRA hunger strike. Since then, Nachtwey has devoted himself to documenting wars, conflicts and critical social issues. He has worked on extensive photographic essays in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza, Israel, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, South Africa, Russia, Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo, Romania, Brazil and the United States.

South Africa, 2000 - Grandmother cared for young girl affected by HIV © James Nachtwey

Nachtwey has been a contract photographer with Time Magazine since 1984 and was a member of Magnum from 1986 until 2001. In 2001, he became one of the founding members of the photo agency, VII. He has had solo exhibitions at the International Center of Photography in New York, the Bibliotheque nationale de France in Paris, the Palazzo Esposizione in Rome, the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, Culturgest in Lisbon, El Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles, the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, the Canon Gallery and the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, the Carolinum in Prague,and the Hasselblad Center in Sweden, among others.

El Salvador, 1984 - Army evacuated wounded soldiers from village football field © James Nachtwey

He has received numerous honours such as the Common Wealth Award, Martin Luther King Award, Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award, Henry Luce Award, Robert Capa Gold Medal (five times), the World Press Photo Award (twice), Magazine Photographer of the Year (seven times), the International Center of Photography Infinity Award (three times), the Leica Award (twice), the Bayeaux Award for War Correspondents (twice), the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award, the Canon Photo essayist Award and the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Grant in Humanistic Photography. He is a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and has an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Arts.

Links relating to James Nachtwey:
James Nachtwey’s Homepage: http://www.jamesnachtwey.com/
VII Photo Agency: http://www.viiphoto.com/
James Nachtwey on Wikipedia: James Nachtwey Wiki

About TED :

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader, with one mission: Spreading ideas. The annual TED Conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

TED.com , in turn, makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free. Some 300 talks from our archive are now available, with more added each week. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted. TED believes passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world.

About the TED Prize :

The TED Prize was created as a way of taking the inspiration, ideas and resources that are generated at TED and using them to make a difference. Although the winners receive a prize of $100,000 each, that’s the least of what they get. The real prize is that they are granted a WISH. A wish to change the world. For more details on the 2008 winners — including blog entries and updates on their wishes — visit TEDPrize.org

Links to some of the supporting blogs and discussion on the topic:

• Rob Haggart - A Photo Editor http://aphotoeditor.com/2008/09/30/james-nachtweys-ted-prize-and-you/
• Lightstalkers.org http://www.lightstalkers.org/help-break-james-nachtweys-story-on-oct-3
• Weird-O-Matic http://www.weirdomatic.com/

1 Comment to Photographer James Nachtwey - The Story Breaks

1. [...] it. Please read about the full story, the project, James Nachtwey, TED and how to spread it @ marassimages.com/blog/photographer-james-nachtwey-the-sto… Photographer Reinfried Marass Fine Art Photography • Commercial & Editorial Photography [...]
The Story Breaks | sexos on October 2nd, 2008

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