[litbrit looks on]
James Nachtwey
The truth is rarely pure and never simple.--Oscar Wilde
Photographer James Nachtwey finds beauty--and even grace--in scenes some would consider too heartbreaking, too graphically affecting, to look at for more than a moment before turning away with eyes full of tears. To those I would ask, is that not the very noblest purpose of art itself? To provoke, to enlighten, to inform, and to inspire? Because Mr. Nachtwey's work, currently on display at the United Nations as well as 401 Projects in New York's West Village, most certainly elicits all of these responses and more. In this morning's New York Times, Michael Kimmelman notes:
Beauty is a vexed matter in scenes of suffering, cruelty and death. The difference between exploitation and public service comes down to whether the subject of the image aids the ego of the photographer more than the other way around. The two are not mutually exclusive.
