Kunar, Afghanistan, 1986

This photo of Afghani Muslim soldiers at prayer during their war with the Soviets is one of many powerful images of daily life under the siege of war, famine, political oppression, and environmental devastation recorded by acclaimed photo journalist James Nachtwey '70 and on display at the Hood Museum September 17 through November 20. Though he is a three-time winner of the Robert Capa Gold Medal award and has garnered many other high honors for his work as a photojournalist, this was only Nachtwey's second gallery show in the United States. "My purpose is to be in the mass media," Nachtwey told the Boston Globe. He does not consider himself an artist but a journalist whose mission it is to make people respond to world events "in a strong and passionate way." Still, his uncropped images are made all the more powerful and immediate by Nachtwey's keen compositional eye and mastery of his craft. Using a medium wide-angle lens never telephoto he gets into the middle of the action and tries to capture the "decisive moment" of an event. Scheduled to present a slide lecture and join a panel discussion at Dartmouth in October, Nachtwey had to cancel when he was called away at moment's notice to capture more historically decisive moments in Haiti.