HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE.- The Hood Museum of Art presents James Nachtwey: Witness, an exhibition of approximately twenty photographs by world-renowned photojournalist James Nachtwey, a 1970 graduate of Dartmouth College and a Montgomery Fellow. Opening on March 26, this small, but powerful exhibition will remain on view through May 12. Nachtwey's photographs document the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, famine in Somalia, the recent conflicts in the Balkans, and Afghanistan in 1996. "His photographs are extraordinarily sober, even disciplined; there is no exultation or cleverness here. Simultaneously complex and stark, Nachtwey's pictures are unburdened by extraneous detail: he shows us more than we can bear, but no more than we need to see. Indeed, Nachtwey is known for the perfection of his compositions…"
Susan Linfield, Dissent Magazine, Winter 2001.
"Nachtwey's art is meant to force us to face unbearable facts. The power of Nachtwey's images transcends journalism. Nachtwey's photographs make us capable of imagining that it could have happened to us. They are hard to forget, or forgive."
Tim Appelo, staff reviewer, Amazon.com
Academy Award nominated film War Photographer (Switzerland, 2001), by Christian Frei, documents Nachtwey's work, fears, and daily routine over the course of two years. "James Nachtwey is no rumbling swaggerer, but an unobtrusive man with gray hair and the deliberation of a lecturer in philosophy. A thoughtful, rather shy person. But many people think of him as the bravest and best war photographer ever. Without a doubt he is the busiest. In the past twenty years he has not missed a single war. And he probably has seen more suffering and dying than anyone else of our time."
Filmmaker Chris Frei, War Photographer (Switzerland, 2001)
This exhibition is an excerpted version of James Nachtwey: Testimony, organized by the International Center for Photography, New York, with support from Canon USA and Time, Inc. Its presentation at the Hood is made possible by the Harrington Gallery Fund.
