Cruelty and Pain, Seen in an Unblinking Lens

New York Times review of the photography of James Nachtwey:

In two new exhibits, photographer James Nachtwey documents the consequences of war and disease. By MICHAEL KIMMELMAN. [NYT > Home Page]

From the article:

Is this how these men would wish to be remembered? Are the pictures an invasion of privacy?

That was the Bush administration’s excuse for prohibiting photographs of returning coffins. But then there’s the argument made at the opening of the show at 401 by a ex-marine who lost his right arm in Iraq. (He was among a number of veterans who stopped by the gallery, a nonprofit space devoted to this sort of exceptional photographic projects, to pay tribute to Mr. Nachtwey.) The marine said he thought these pictures should be on billboards in Times Square so that everybody would know what’s really happening over there, and nobody could miss seeing them.

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