"The worst thing is to feel that as a photographer I'm benefiting from someone else's tragedy. This idea haunts me. It's something I have to reckon with every day, because I know that if I ever allow genuine compassion to be overtaken by personal ambition, I will have sold my soul. The only way I can justify my role is to have respect for the other person's predicament. The extent to which I do that is the extent to which I become accepted by the other and to that extent I can accept myself."
James Nachtwey

January 1, 1970

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Added on April 10, 2026
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Original Language: English

Sources

War Photographer, documentary, 2001

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Nachtwey