“Photography can cut through abstractions and
rhetoric to help us understand complex issues on a human level. Never is
photography more essential than in moments of crisis. To witness people
suffering is difficult. To make a photograph of that suffering is even harder.
The challenge is to remain open to very powerful emotions and, rather than
shutting down, channel them into the images. It is crucial to see with a sense
of compassion and to comprehend that just because people are suffering does not
mean they lack dignity.”
• Editorial Comment: More than 1,000 words.
—James Nachtwey, photojournalist, in the afterword to
his powerful photo essay on the opioid epidemic, “The Opioid Diaries,” TIME,
Feb. 24, 2018. Image: James Nachtwey, “Cheryl
Schmidtchen, 67, being consoled at the funeral for her granddaughter
Michaela Gingras in Manchester, N.H., on Sept. 17, 2017. Gingras, a
heroin user, was 24.”
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Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD
“I
don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If
you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a
little.” —Tom Stoppard
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