Third »Dresden-Prize« to go to the American Photo-Journalist James Nachtwey / Wim Wenders to deliver Laudatio / Nachtwey-Exhibition in the Dresden Military History Museum
Photographer James Nachtwey is to be honoured with the third Dresden International Peace Prize on 11th February 2012 in the Semperoper in Dresden, Germany. The New Yorker is considered to be the most prominent war photographer of our time. Laudator will be the director and photographer Wim Wenders. Planned in two parts, the award ceremony in the Semperoper is to be followed immediately by the opening of an exhibition of Nachtwey’s photographs in the Military History Museum in Dresden.
Laudator Wim Wenders: »Pictures of war are often merely further weapons in the hands of those who make war; they make it seem harmless, justify it, or serve to prepare for it. James Nachtwey takes the side of war’s disenfranchised victims and with his images puts weapons into their hands with which they can at last defend themselves. His photographs do not allow their being instrumentalised by those in power.«
Stirred by the shocking effects of the pictures coming out of the Viet Nam War, Nachtwey, born 1948 in the US State of Massachusetts, decided in the early 1970’s to become a combat photographer, although he rather saw himself as an antiwar photographer. From the beginning of the 1980’s he has depicted the world’s crises and wars. His credo is »have been a witness, and these pictures are my testimony. The events I have recorded shouldnot be forgotten and must not be repeated.«
Almost everyone has seen one or the other of his photos, such as the one of the young Ruandan with the long machete scar across his face; or the pictures from Chechnya of the dead lying in the streets as if discarded; or the wrenching picture of the starving Somali child, almost a skeleton; or the photograph of the dirty, naked boy in a Rumanian orphanage sitting on a rusty bedspring without a mattress; or the picture, reproduced many thousands of times, of the collapsing south tower of the World Trade Center, taken so close that the viewer even today fears for the life of the photographer.
Nachtwey has photographed in Northern Ireland, in Sudan, in Ruanda, in Somalia, in Chechnya, in Bosnia, in Afghanistan, in South Africa, in Nicaragua, and in many other countries. While at work he was wounded several times, once very seriously on 10th December 2003 in Iraq.
His work has been exhibited and recognised many times. To date he has twice received the World Press Prize and five times the Robert Capa Medal. Nachtwey was six-time Magazine Photographer of the Year in the USA. Christian Frei’s film documentary »War Photographer«, whose subject was James Nachtwey, was nominated for an Oscar in 2002.
In explaining the decision to award the Dresden Prize to James Nachtwey, Nobel Prize winner Guenter Blobel, President of the Friends of Dresden in New York and vice chairman of the Friends of Dresden Deutschland: »The prevention of violence is especially effective when a picture is conveyed of that which the violence of war is. James Nachtwey is one of those who, without consideration of the danger to him- or herself, bring such pictures to us, pictures which we can never forget. And he does this as a moralist, as one who doesn’t merely hope, but rather believes that his pictures can change the way we think. Without the photographs of Dresden in ruins, its destruction would have been long erased from the world’s memory and no longer a warning against armed conflict. Through the photographs of James Nachtwey other wars remain in our thoughts. Susan Sontag wrote: ›Wars of which there are no pictures are forgotten.‹ And forgetting wars must not happen because then we forget their victims as well.«
The exhibition of the photographs by James Nachtwey will be the first special exhibition in Dresden’s newly opened Military History Museum and will continue through the end of May 2012. Gorch Pieken, Academic Director of the Museum: »James Nachtwey’s important photographic work is an overwhelming documentation of the most recent history of human violence and at the same time an appeal to human reason and empathy. We are more than happy to be able to exhibit his photography in our new museum.«
The award ceremony is put on by the organisation Friends of Dresden Deutschland and by the Dresdner Semperoper. Dr. Ulrike Hessler, Director of the Semperoper: »The Dresden Prize, awarded in the Semperoper in conjunction with the traditional Requiem Performance on 13th February, embodies past, present, and future. The intent is to communicate one of the saddest chapters of the past to each new, present generation so that the outbreak of such incomprehensible violence can in future be prevented on all sides. This is included in the conception of the new Military History Museum in Dresden and can in this way stand symbolically for the manner with which Dresden deals with its history.«
In its understanding of Dresden’s fate as an admonishment, the prize presented by the Friends of Dresden Deutschland recognises extraordinary services by outstanding people who above all act preventively to help prevent escalations of violence. To award a peace prize on the anniversary of the destruction of Dresden is also a gesture against the attempted co-opting of this date by right-wing radicals.
The prize carries with it a cash award of 25 000 Euros, sponsored by the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, Heidelberg and the organisation Friends of Dresden, Deutschland. The first prize winner in 2010 was the Nobel Laureate Mikhail Gorbachov, to whom the prize was given for his work in nuclear disarmament in the 1980’s. In 2011 Daniel Barenboim’s exemplary engagement for dialogue in the Near East was honoured.
will take place on 11th February 2012 at 11:00 AM in the Semperoper, its Moderator Gerhart Baum, former German Federal Minister of the Interior and, as a previous member of the UN Human Rights Commission, an observer during the violent conflict in Sudan.
Tickets for the awarding of the third Dresden Prize are available at a price of five euros beginning 5rd December 2011 at the box office of the Semperoper in Dresden.
consists of two parts: an arsenal that was built in 1877 and a new extension designed by U.S. architect Daniel Libeskind and completed in 2011. Shaped like of a wedge, the extension cuts through the old arsenal. The light and shadow effects produced by the new wedge symbolise the eventful military history of Germany. Both the architecture and the permanent exhibition of the Museum of Military History seek to avoid biased presentations and to challenge traditional perspectives. The exhibition confronts the visitor with his or her own potential for aggression and shows violence as a historical, cultural, and anthropological phenomenon. The permanent exhibition encompasses a thematic exhibition in the new extension and a chronological exhibition in the original building. All in all, some 10,000 exhibits are presented in an exhibition area of 10,000 square metres. The Bundeswehr Museum of Military History aims to open new avenues of thought. It is a platform for public debate on the war and the military in the past, present and future.
dominates the Theaterplatz on the river Elbe, forming the centrepiece of the historic old city. The original building opened its doors in 1841, constructed to a design by Gottfried Semper which combined a late Classical style with Renaissance elements. Following a devastating fire in 1869, the citizens of Dresden immediately set about rebuilding their beloved opera house. This was completed in 1878, also to a design by Semper. In 1945, during the final months of World War II, the Semperoper was once again razed to the ground. After a second reconstruction was successfully completed in 1985, the reopening of one of Europe’s most beautiful opera houses was celebrated with a performance of Carl Maria von Weber’s »Freischütz«. The 25th anniversary of this third opera house was on 13 February 2010. The dazzling interiors were painstakingly reconstructed by local craftsmen and artists according to original plans, whilst the stage machinery and technical fittings in the auditorium are state-of-the-art. A modern annex was added to house the administrative offices and rehearsal rooms. Internationally renowned for its brilliant acoustics and incomparable performances, audiences from around the world continue to flock here to enjoy a unique evening in the Semperoper Dresden.
The award ceremony is put on by the organisation Friends of Dresden Deutschland and by the Dresdner Semperoper.
