James Nachtwey Quotes

We live in a visual world now.

Photography is a major force in explaining man to man.

I hate cameras. I hate cameras and I hate camera phones. The camera's my worst enemy and my best friend. It's the way I convey my emotions to the world without saying a word, so I use it. People always say, 'You come alive as soon as the camera's on!'

I've always believed that photography is a way to shape human perception.

To see, and to show, is the mission now undertaken by Life.

Photography helps people to see.

The camera is no more an instrument of preservation, the image is.

I just love photographing. I don't do it for anyone else.

The most powerful weapon in the world, as far as I'm concerned, is the camera.

One of the difficulties of photography is that it is much better at being explicit than at being reticent.

I like photographers. You don't ask questions.

[Press] Photographers are the only dictators in America.

The fact that television is raising our moral conscience is a good thing.

I think that our civilisation is very much a visual civilisation - television and videos and all this.

One of my staff members told me that after the release of the film, whenever a custodial death is reported, people say - 'Another 'Visaranai.' This is the kind of change that I am looking for; it should hit you hard.

You can spread awareness through entertainment.

If you're a photographer, you end up being the raw creative force that allows other people to see what kind of narrative you want to be giving or what kind of art that you want people to see.

I picked up a camera because it was my choice of weapons against what I hated most about the universe: racism, intolerance, poverty.

We need all the newfangled web-based Internet spread, you know, social media that can catalyze, you know, some serious consciousness about what's going on. But we also need people on the streets pounding the pavement to make a significant and dramatic appearance to suggest that what's going on here is unacceptable.

The whole point of taking pictures is so that you don't have to explain things with words.

I believe that the medium of photography prevails entirely as an act of faith in the souls of those who love and practice it. And so every photograph becomes another subtle variation on the theme of the medium itself.

We grew up with a camera in front of us.

Photographers feel guilty that all they do for a living is press a button.

I'm not trying to amass people in the streets. I just want them to be more aware.

When something isn't constantly drummed-up by the media, [people] just don't know about it.