In the past 30 years, the world has witnessed the rise of AIDS, growing disenfranchisement of the poor, famine in Somalia, "dirty war" in Latin America, and mass murder in Rwanda, Kosovo, Darfur and New York.

Photojournalist James Nachtwey has documented these events and others over a career that now spans four decades. Through his work with Time, National Geographic and countless other publications, Nachtwey has come to be considered one of the world's greatest living war photographers. He prefers to call himself an anti-war photographer.

Thursday, Nachtwey delivered the 2007 Ernie Pyle Lecture at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on Kirkwood Avenue . To an audience of over 500 people, he presented stirring and often devastating portraits of the life of street kids in Indonesia, victims of Agent Orange in Vietnam and the U.S., and conflict in the Muslim world from Chechnya to Kashmir. He also spoke of the critical role journalists and photojournalists have in exposing the costs of war and stirring people to action.

"I consider journalism to be a service industry, and the service we provide is awareness," he said.

"I want my photographs to become part of a mass consciousness," he told the crowd. "Out of consciousness comes conscience."

Nachtwey said he tries to infuse his pictures with a sense of the wider context in which they were taken. In his lecture, he presented a sophisticated understanding of the historical and political backgrounds of his photographs and said that kind of understanding is missing from much of today's journalism.

"We have to ask ourselves if we've allowed marketing decisions to co-opt responsible journalism, and if we have, what are the consequences?"

From the silent violence of invisibility, as shown by his coverage of neglected orphans in Romania, to the human costs of deception, as told by his National Geographic photo essay on U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq, Nachtwey strives to expose those consequences.
The events of 9/11, he said, were also partly a result of failed reporting.

"It was a failure of security, a failure of intelligence and a failure of journalism," he said. "We missed the big picture."

Nachtwey was at his loft in New York that morning, preparing to head to an assignment in Antigua. He looked out his window and saw the second plane hit the World Trade Center. He unpacked his cameras, grabbed his film and went to Ground Zero, where he spent the day photographing in the wreckage of the twin towers. The wars he had spent years documenting had arrived in his backyard.

Nachtwey's photographs tend to evoke visceral reactions from viewers. After the lecture, audience members asked Nachtwey how he manages to keep working in the face of such horror.

"It definitely takes a toll," he said. "A physical, emotional, spiritual toll.

"What gets me through is having a sense of purpose. I've managed to carve out a place for myself in the press so that my pictures will get published. With that comes responsibility," he said.

Many in the audience seemed deeply moved both by Nachtwey's photographs and his words.

"When the local news is so focused on the Indianapolis Colts, it's good to be reminded that we do live in a troubled world and that there are people like Mr. Nachtwey who are committed to telling their stories and ensuring that people pay attention," said Chris Meyer, art director for IU's Office of Communications and Marketing.

Some in the audience expressed doubt that the world would change. Nachtwey's response: "Things do change."

"You have to solve each problem as it arises," he said. "First, you have to identify the problem."

And that, he said, is the job of the journalist.

Read students' essays on Nachtwey's lecture.