A classic photojournalist known for his ethical view about wars – La Nacion (Argentina)

long career, James Nachtwey receive the award for Communications and Humanities

photo of James Nachtwey won the World Press in 1995.

the solemn announcement yesterday in Oviedo: American photojournalist James Nachtwey will receive the Princess of Asturias Award Communication and Humanities, one of the eight categories awarded annually by the foundation, and the most important of Spain.

Nachtwey has cultivated throughout his life a low profile in public display, despite the streak almost endless international awards he has achieved in his career since he started covering wars and conflicts in the early 80s in his award, the jury president, Victor Garcia de la Concha, based the ruling on the “commitment professional who has led [a Nachtwey] to cover some thirty armed conflicts and humanitarian crises without abdicating the ethical principles of the reporter or disguise the opinion of the camera. ” After the recognition of Sebastiao Salgado (1998) and Annie Leibovitz (2013), is the third photographer to achieve this distinction.

In times of confusion for press photography, which seems to drown in a virtual ocean images without sense or responsibility or professionalism, this recognition to a “classic” photojournalist is at least encouraging. But it also should be analyzed, if only for a moment, the two qualities that the president of the jury and director of Instituto Cervantes are provided excellence of this activity: the ethical principles of the reporter and an unalterable “opinion” of the camera.

No doubt the honesty expressed Nachtwey through the years. Not so with the ethical principles of the print media in his country, where his photographs have been published. Perhaps we need to remember that all military adventures of the United States (as well as their consequences in other wars) have little to do with humanitarian principles that anyone with common sense can identify. And we know that for many years it is impossible to cover an international armed conflict if it is not done with the agreement, accompanying (and censorship) of the invading army.

As for the “opinion of the camera” it is an appreciation at least superficial, just in case we had the naivete to believe that the camera alone produces, or dictates, objective images, which only then may or may not be manipulated by the operator or its editors.

it is true that Nachtwey has a humanitarian point of view and was expressed in an unforgettable way in the 480 pages of his book Inferno , a complete sample of the atrocities that man was able of committing between 1990 and 1999 conflicts, famine and genocide in Somalia, Rwanda, Romania, India, Bosnia and Chechnya. . All conflicts where his country was not the main protagonist

Reporter graphic

Age: 68 years

from: United States

It is Time magazine photographer since 1984. He participated in the legendary Black Star agency, Magnum Photos, and 2001 founded the agency VII.

Among the countless awards in his career, including 17 World Press Photo, the most prestigious photojournalism contest in the world.

In 1997 won the photojournalism contest in the nation for its series “Afghanistan, the death of a nation”

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