James Nachtwey’s project on extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDRTB) was unveiled today, and it is pretty powerful to look at.
XDRTB.org is an extraordinary effort to tell the story of extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) and TB through powerful photographs taken by James Nachtwey. XDR-TB, or extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis, is a new and deadly mutation of tuberculosis. Similar in creation to multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) but more extreme in its manifestation, it arises when common tuberculosis goes untreated or standard TB drugs are misused. James’ photographs represent these varying strains. Learn more about TB, MDR-TB and XDR-TB, and learn how you can take action to stop this deadly disease.
You can see the photos and learn more at the XDRTB site (link). I wish the pictures were larger and had captions… (The Boston Globe’s Big Picture blog ran 14 of the photos very large on their site)
I only took one picture on the way home. I definitely bit off more than I could chew with a 9 a.m. photo assignment for work Monday morning, but I pushed myself to the limit to get home.
Besides just about dying in the middle of Arkansas and swerving all over the road in Illinois the ride was OK.
I pulled off near Blytheville, Ark., after waking up driving north in the southbound lane. Normally I have a gradual feeling of tiredness, but this just kept hitting me all night. I stopped at a gas station and slept in the car for about an hour-and-a-half before waking up and hitting the road for some more stupid driving.
I honestly don’t remember driving through Missouri.
This photo of the giant cross along Interstate 57 in Effingham is out of focus, but I think it’s what best tells the story of my drive. Blurry… the whole drive was a blur.
I got home at 7:30 a.m., just in time to sleep for about 45 minutes and then go to work.
The trip was a blast, but I definitely should have stretched it out by a couple of days. 34+ hours in a car in three days was a stupid choice… but I’m glad I did it.
I left Aaron’s place in Starkville, Miss., and drove to Clarksdale, Miss., to meet Colin for some dinner. The roads through the Mississippi Delta were some of the most beautiful and most bizarre stretches of road I have ever traveled.
Here are a few things I saw on this leg of the trip…
Aaron and I drove back to Starkville. There isn’t really much else to say about that. The ride back on Mississippi Route 25 was just about completely lined with trees. It was refreshing to see something besides corn and soybeans.
We rode with the windows down the whole way… the scent from all of the evergreen trees reminded me of gin and tonic.
Aaron and I drove around Baton Rouge for a while on Sunday to get a glimpse of the twon. From what we saw, there are some beautiful homes and architecture there. There was also quite a bit of storm damage still visible after the summer’s hurricane season.
None of these pictures are really great, probably since they are all taken without getting out of the Jeep. Anyway… here are some thing we saw.
Aaron and I had breakfast at Coffee Call in Baton Rouge Sunday morning. I had never had beignets before… I am kind of sad that it took me 27 years and seven days to discover them.
They are deep-fried pastries covered in powdered sugar. I mean covered… the lady behind the counter used a metal scoop like restaurants use for ice. In case that’s not enough, they had shakers full of powdered sugar on the tables.
The sugar high from breakfast lasted through most of the trip back to Starkville.
I thought the sign on the back of the door in the photo room underneath LSU’s Tiger Stadium was pretty cool. Maybe it was just the fact that the photographers were able to use an actual room and not a tent under the stands like the U of I…
I got to shoot a game between MSU and LSU at Tiger Stadium (or Death Valley) in Baton Rouge, La., Saturday night. Pretty impressive stadium, definitely one of the loudest things I have ever heard. It was at least twice as loud as my wife’s snoring. Just kidding honey, it was easily three times louder.
As huge as the stadium is, I have to say I was disappointed with the lighting on the field. There was plenty of light, it just seemed to be too high up, so the tops of helmets and shoulderpads were the only things catching light. Oh well. I’ll probably never get the chance to shoot there again since the chances of Illinois playing there are pretty slim and this was just a one-time thing.
Aaron is the MSU beat writer for his paper, the Starkville Daily News, and was able to get me credentials to shoot the game for his paper. Too bad they only ran one photo (and cropped it to death) the next day.
We got into town Saturday afternoon and checked in to the hotel. I got a pretty good kick out of the directions the lady at the front desk gave us for our room. She told Aaron he had to go down, around and then enter through the rear. Maybe I had been stuck in a car for too long, but I found it to be a little too funny. I couldn’t even get my usual “that’s what she said” line out because I was laughing so hard.
Even better, when we asked for a recommendation on someplace to eat with some local flavor — something unique to Baton Rouge — her suggestion was Bennigan’s. Seriously? We went with her second choice, the Cheesecake Bistro, because it was close. It was like walking into the Cheesecake Factory in downtown Chicago… only it was a cheap imitation with worse service.
My food was decent, but it definitely wasn’t a taste of Louisiana.
We made it to the stadium and walked through about a dozen blocks full of tailgaters. This town knows how to tailgate. It was unlike anything I had ever seen.
The game was like shooting any other game… here are some of the things I saw in Death Valley.
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.
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).
Stephen is shooting a couple of assignments. (Updated 3 hours, 58 minutes ago)
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I'm Stephen. I'm pretty awesome. I have ADD. I'm addicted to caffeine. I could live on chips and salsa. I have incredible friends. I am madly in love with my wife. That's about it...
