James Nachtwey People Quotations

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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