James Nachtwey is known for his compelling images of human suffering. He has captured genocide, disease and starvation. Absorbing so much devastation through the lens would numb many photographers, but Mr. Nachtwey is undaunted.
“I try to stay open,” said Mr. Nachtwey, who is a contract photographer for Time and a contributor to National Geographic. “It has become only harder — not easier — to do. But I realize that if I don’t do it, then I won’t be as effective; my pictures won’t have the same depth and humanity.”
James Nachtwey Swaziland: A woman with multidrug-resistant TB is comforted by her mother.When Mr. Nachtwey was awarded a TED Prize in 2007, receiving $100,000 to help fulfill “one wish to change the world,” he chose to tell a visual story about tuberculosis.
“This is about a disease that had been completely in the shadows,” Mr. Nachtwey said, allowing that he himself had once believed it was “more like an archaic disease that had virtually disappeared.”
He first encountered the ravages of TB when shooting an assignment on AIDS in Africa in 2004. Thereafter, he kept observing its devastating effects. Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death for people already suffering from failing immune systems due to AIDS. It has also mutated into deadlier strains known as multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and, even worse, extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB).
James Nachtwey
Swaziland: A patient receives an infusion in a home visit from missionaries.
In the hope of putting TB “on the radar screen,” Mr. Nachtwey traveled to seven countries that are struggling with the disease, working with nongovernmental organizations and public health officials.
“I wanted to do it through the lens of people actually being cured for TB or treated in some way, to show that there was care going on but it’s difficult,” he said.
At a hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, where an outbreak of extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis killed 52 of its 53 victims in 2005; at a Buddhist temple in Cambodia; and at a prison colony in Siberia, Mr. Nachtwey documented the suffering of those infected, the families watching over them and the health care workers trying desperately to combat the epidemic.
James Nachtwey India: A patient in Mumbai, with advanced pulmonary TB, receives a daily injection and oxygen.Focused on making the public aware of the global dimensions of the TB threat, Mr. Nachtwey said he hoped his images would spark new initiatives, further research and an increase in spending on the disease.
An exhibition of his photos, “Struggle to Live: The Fight Against TB,” is up until March 25 at 401 Projects, a gallery at 401 West Street in Manhattan.
The large black-and-white prints capture men and women whose bodies clearly show the contours of their skeletons, doctors in masks examining X-rays and administering shots to fearful patients, and children struggling to take their last breaths.
“You really have to open yourself and identify with the people you’re photographing and try and have a real emotional connection,” Mr. Nachtwey said. “Without that, if you don’t have the emotions yourself, you can’t translate those emotions to anyone else.”
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