Donald McCullin
[Photographer, b. 1935, Finsbury Park, London, lives in Somerset, England.]
It’s not important that I record every tragedy that goes on in the world. But I decided to try a couple of shots. And I did something despicable. I wound the car window down and took the photographs from inside. Then I hated myself for not having the decency and courage to at least get out and do something.
Horst Faas
[Photojournalist, b. 1933, Berlin, Germany, d. 2012, Munich, Germany.]
I think we have another Pulitzer here.
(On his his first viewing of Nick Ut’s photograph of Kim Phuc fleeing the village of Trang Bang, Vietnam after it was napalm bombed in 1972.)
James Nachtwey
[Photographer, b. 1948, Syracuse, New York, lives in New York.]
If I cave in, if I fold up because of the emotional obstacles that are in front of me, I’m useless. There is no point in me being there in the first place. And I think if you go to places where people are experiencing these kinds of tragedies with a camera, you have a responsibility. The value of it is to make an appeal to the rest of the world, to create an impetus where change is possible through public opinion. Public opinion is created through awareness. My job is to help create the awareness.
I became a photographer in order to be a war photographer.
David Burnett
[Photojournalist, b. 1946, Salt Lake City, Utah, lives in Arlington, Virginia.]
War isn’t a TV show with plot twists to keep the viewers interested. The proliferation of images and blanket media coverage have suffocated the life out of old-style photojournalism.
William Eggleston
[Photographer, b. 1939, Memphis, Tennessee, lives in Memphis.]
I am at war with the obvious.
James Nachtwey
[Photographer, b. 1948, Syracuse, New York, lives in New York.]
In a way, if an individual assumes the risk of placing himself in the middle of a war to communicate to the rest of the world what’s happening, he’s trying to negotiate for peace. Perhaps that’s the reason for those in charge of perpetuating the war do not like to have photographers around.
Susie Linfield
[Writer and critic, New York, lives in New York.]
The Abu Ghraib images—digital images, taken by amateurs—have strengthened, not undermined, the status of photographs as documents of the real. No written account of the tortures could have made such an impact.
