Tomorrow, James Nachtwey, one of my favorite photographers and a major influence in the way I see the world, is set to unveil a big story he has been working on after winning a TED grant last year.
“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.”
The story will be revealed on LED screens in major cities and locations on all seven continents and online.
Mal bought me a copy of the “War Photographer” documentary, primarily about Nachtwey, for our anniversary last month. I think I’ve watched it a dozen times since then… so I’m pretty excited to see what tomorrow’s projects will show us.
He’s traveled the world covering conflict and human tragedy for as long as I’ve been alive… I think it would be kind of funny if the project was an essay about kittens frolicing in a meadow under a rainbow. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be more important and a little more earth-shattering than that, but I still think it would be funny.
I enjoyed reading a personal story about Nachtwey by Vincent Laforet’s blog last night:
One of the best lessons I learned from him (there were many) is that while we were all drowning our sorrows late into the night (the press corps in Pakistan) mostly due to the overwhelming emotion / frustration / fear & uncertainty that followed 9/11/01 - Nachtwey would quietly decline to join us - going to bed early (or likely working on a book layout now looking back at what I know of his crazy work ethic.) By the time we were waking up to horrible light and hangovers - he was walking back into the lobby of the hotel… no matter how good you are, how developed your eye and vision are - discipline and adherence to the following axiom: “The early bird gets the worm…” helps even Mr. Nachtwey…
If you want to know more about Nachtwey, you can see his website (link).
Here is a bio from the TED site (link).
And, there’s always his wikipedia page (link).
His work is also a part of the VII Photo agency (link).
If you want to know more about the TED prize, you can see their website (link).
The project will be unveiled online here (link).
[...] Stephen wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptI think it would be kind of bfunny/b if the project was an essay about bkittens/b frolicing in a meadow under a rainbow. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be more important and a little more earth-shattering than that, but I still think it would b…/b [...]
i’ve watched this acceptance speech four times this year.
Road trip to Skokie on October 17th for the Chicago premiere?
I wish… We’ve got high school games out the wazoo plus the Bulls/Jazz exhibition game in Champaign.
[...] It wasn’t kittens. [...]