“Struggle for Life” features images of patients under the care of GHC/CHC, along with text by Dr. Anne Goldfeld, IDI Senior Investigator and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Publicizing the impact of tuberculosis on people around the world has become the passion of award-winning war photojournalist James Nachtwey, who has spent the last several years documenting the suffering and human toll taken by the disease. His photos, including images of GHC/CHC workers and patients in Cambodia, will be on view again at two upcoming events.
Nachtwey’s show, goes on exhibit at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin for one month beginning May 23rd. The event will mark the 100-year anniversary of the isolation of the tuberculosis pathogen, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, by German scientist Robert Koch. Nachtwey will share the photos with United States lawmakers on June 4, at an invitation-only Congressional Reception at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC.
In 2002, Goldfeld first asked Nachtwey to join her in a project that would document, through photos and words, the human toll taken by tuberculosis and AIDS worldwide, and the valiant efforts being made by people on the ground in Africa and Asia to fight the diseases.
Since then, Nachtwey has mounted major exhibits at the United Nations in New York and in Paris that included images of TB patients in Cambodia and other countries. Last fall, he launched a media campaign to educate the world about drug-resistant tuberculosis, beginning with a slide show that premiered simultaneously in outdoor venues in major cities around the world. That work, funded by a TED Prize, also included the work of the CHC/GHC.
Nachtwey’s images are graphic and disturbing, and aimed at opening the eyes of the world to the suffering caused by tuberculosis, a preventable and treatable disease. As he puts it, "I have been a witness and these pictures are my testimony.”
Also, see Nachtwey’s 2004 award winning photo essay of CHC/GHC’s work “TB in Cambodia”.
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Advocacy Through Images: Tragedy of Tuberculosis Captured by Premier Photojournalist
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