James Nachtwey and TED need your help breaking a major story that Jim has been documenting over the last two years as part of winning the TED prize in 2007. On October 3, his work will be simultaneously revealed online, disseminated through numerous media channels, and projected on monuments and public buildings throughout the world.

How to get involved:
The following link contains embeddable badges, Nachtwey’s TEDTalk, and other information related to Nachtwey’s wish.
http://www.tedprize.org/nachtwey/bloggers.html
The site will redirect on October 3 to unveil the story.

Nachtwey wished for help in breaking a news story in a way that demonstrates the power of news photography in the digital age. Let’s do whatever we can to make it happen.

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27 Comments

  1. Should be interesting. Especially considering it’s being revealed during the middle of the economic meltdown. Wonder if it’s related…

    Bryan

    • @BryanF, It might be the economic meltdown pales alongside some other things continuously going in the world, e.g., the killing and maiming as products of war, the ravages of famine and disease, the pollution of minds by propaganda, words of intolerance, and rhetoric… words that cause too many to go out and commit atrocious acts. And let’s not forget the planet and its ecology.

  2. OHHH YEAHHHH

    A dream comes true …

    and I like the fact that it’s started by James Nachtwey … throwing in his brand-name will help … MUST help

    using the power of the www to put attention to all the things that do go wrong in this world … and there are MANY …

    to fade out the press and it’s editors (sorry APE *smile)…

    magazine and newspapers do decide WHAT is ‘of interest’ for the world …

    maybe it sounds funny, but the www is by far (or could be) more consistent …
    how long does the story of a magazine be actual ? … how long are the readers impressed by it ? … just some hours, maybe a day …

    using the web, a story (texts, images, videos …) can be seen over and over and over again …
    ……………………

    the ‘power of an image’ can be tremendous … an image can change the world in some cases …

    Harley Davidson comes to my mind … a company that is still alive just to the power of ONE SINGLE image … ok, that’s an commercial example …
    ……………………

    At the age of 18 I travelled the Sudan, an african country most people never heard about. Btw, it’s Africa’s largest state.

    When I was there I was told there is civil war in Sudan, but that has been back in 1979 !!!
    Now, nearly 30 (thirty !) years later there still is war. Fortunately the world starts to act a little bit (Darfur) . As far as I know James Nachtwey was there in 2004.

    Why did it need such a loooong time ?

    This is just a small example, the whole african continent is bleeding and dying. Who really cares ? Who’s really is aware of it ?

    And there are numerous other conflicts and conflict regions throughout the world. Very often they aren’t worth a single note in a newspaper.
    …………………………

    And there are a lot of photographers out there … very skilled ones … ‘young guns’ who would do all the images, risking their lives … many of them would do it just for the expenses if they think something could be changed …

    but they never get a chance … and why should they do it now ? … just to feed their harddiscs ? … never seen the images printed because magazines and newspapers think it’s not of popular interest?
    ………………………..

    Unfortunately with the web there exists another problem … there is another editor again – the almighty GOOGLE, a robot who controls the web, and who vandalises myriads of working hours of webmasters each single day.

    An Example ?
    This is a very good and very professional blog, but 96,5 % of it’s content was sent to Nirvana by Google (in other words: kept in their supplemental index).
    96,5% of this blog’s content can’t be found using Google’s search engine (all other search engines are of no relevance)

    So Google can’t be used (at least not very successful and in a consistent manner) to forward a story.

    But there are still human beings out there … webmaster and the bloggers who all can link and relink and and and ….

    I hope the ‘idea’ started by James Nachtwey will be picked up and advanced in future…

    Sorry for being a bit emotional .. but this is such an important theme !!!

    Best, Reini

  3. What, Jill Greenberg apologizes?

  4. Hmmmmmmmmmmm “embeddable badges”, how Orwellian.

  5. Shame this is going to come to light at a time when the “blessed few” are scrambling to take care of their own asses? The time to ask for help from Caesar is AFTER he’s feasted until his belly is going to burst…not while his stomach is growling.

  6. That is worthy of promotion. A lot more than some thrown together video out of a digital camera or Jill’s reckless self-promotion.

    I respect Nachtwey!

  7. Apparently, Reinfried Marass needs his own blog. :-)

    • @Brooks,
      yes I know … I’m talking too much (sometimes)
      but it’s an important theme for me, sorry

      I have had a blog, but Google (my best friend) did send all content to it’s supplemental index …
      so I have to start over with a new domain and I installed the new WP-thingo yesterday…

      best, Reini

    • @Brooks,

      Coooooooooooooooooome on, nix the passive-aggressive Pelosi-esque rhetoric. I like and moreover NEED to hear what YOU industry people are thinking, feeling and avoiding…hence why I come here, as I am still just a lowly BFA-seeking college student.

      • @TeeJ,

        See this thing :) it was made in jest.

        • I know Brooks is kidding (at least I guess so) …
          TeeJ, many thanks for the advocacy .. I appreaciate it!

          • @Reinfried Marass, Yep. Just poking fun. I also tell my best friend to “get a room” when he kisses his wife. I may never grow up. :-)

  8. It’s interesting to launch this way because you have to trust Jim and TED because who knows what will replace that badge at the appointed hour. Regardless it’s good to break the mold and find new ways to distribute content. I really hope it works.

  9. This looks like it could be very exciting, I will put it on my blog as well. Thanks!

  10. Exciting news, as a longtime fan of Nachtwey, but when I copy/pasted the embed code into my blog it appeared as a line of code, not a badge…

    I’d be glad to add if anyone can explain the hangup.

    http://www.rickolivier.com/blog

    • @rick olivier, I’m replying to myself in case there are other blognoobs like me who will probably figure out (a lot quicker than I did) that the CODE goes in the HTML pane (duh) not in the WP text composer…

  11. i dont get it, what am i supposed to do? which code am i supposed to embed?

    • @bettina,
      you have to go to the TED site, there all will be made clear…

  12. Let’s hope the message doesn’t get overwhelmed by all the hoopla surrounding its delivery. A 2 year project as breaking news should be interesting.

  13. According to some prior posts

    Unfortunately I did get the same feedback.

    Yesterday I had to invest some hours (with the help of some colleagues) to convince people (here in Europe) to support it.

    The people have been very sceptic, asking who is Nachtwey, what’s TED and what’s all about it ? What will be the story?, etc, etc …
    Some thought it’s just a self promotion from a photographer.

    Imho, they are right. The ‘ad’ is a bit confusing and it isn’t stated what’s about it in a clear manner.

    For sure Nachtwey is very famous, maybe one of the most famous photographers alive. But he isn’t Paris Hilton :-) Only insiders do know his name and work.
    We had to bring up some short explanations about him, his work, links to his homepage, wikipeda entry, etc … to convince them.

    Many people are familiar with his photographs, but usually nobody looks after WHO did an image (only insiders do it).
    In addition they never have heard about TED. And you have to do some digging to find out that the story will be about climate change.

    The ad is written by insiders for insiders. Others are a bit confused without further explanation. Maybe it’s explained in the video, but it’s a long one. WHO does invest the time to look at videos on the web ? (except for porn movies :-) )
    ……………………

    A similar story … a short essay:
    Back in the early 90’s a friend (a former drag European drag racer) did host a drag racing event in Hungary. This happened at a time when the iron curtain was raised shortly before and countries like Hungary were ‘exposed’ to the western world (or viceversa …)

    He did invest approx. a year of work, he convinced sponsors, he convinced all european top racing teams to enter.
    He detected a Swiss drag racer who was born in Hungary (for a ‘local hero’).
    He ran ads in the radio, magazines, newspapers, huge bills alongside the roads … the whole stuff.

    But when I arrived at the race track I did count approx. 200 people on the tribunes. (btw, 95% of them have been the members of the teams).
    Not to mention my friend did go broke.

    What went wrong ? All the commercials and no visitors ?
    The answer is very simple. At this time no one in Hungary has ever heard about ‘drag racing’ .

    His personal mistake: HE was familiar with drag racing, all the people around him were familiar with it … so he was an insider, blindfolded and guessing all others in the world do know drag racing as well :-)

    Before you can host an event you must have to explain to the people what’s about it …

    This is the feedback I got on the Nachtwey ad:
    – Who is that guy ?
    – When he is THAT famous all the media would love to publish his story … no need to do it that way (ok, we know that’s not true ….) .. why shall I support it ?
    – what story will come up ? (climate change … but it’s not stated there)
    – How to do it ? … Just show the image … there are more than one … which one ?

    another suggestion … maybe the date should be read 3. Oct. 2008 …. not 10/3/2008
    In other parts of the world the date is written like 3/10/2008 … and people could think it is the 10.May 2008 … already gone, and people may think they are to late to the party :-)
    ……………………………….

    @ Brooks
    I still have to post here :-)
    My new blog is ready and I liked to bring it to life with a ‘top-story’ about one of the ‘forgotten masters’ I had the honour to met personally (a loooong time ago). Imho, his work is similar to the work of america’s Edward S. Curtis (and the world should know about him …).
    Unfortunately there are not many images of his work out there (on the web) to illustrate the story. Most of his photography are hold by Smithonians. But they don’t get back on me. A photographer seldom gets replies.
    So I’ll have to look out for another story – please have some patience :-)

    best, Reini

    • I thought this line from the site is a good way to summarize what it’s about…

      “The TED Prize was created as a way of taking the inspiration, ideas and resources that are generated at TED and using them to make a difference. Although the winners receive a prize of $100,000 each, that’s the least of what they get. The real prize is that they are granted a WISH. A wish to change the world.”

    • @Will,
      I think finding new distribution channels for news the traditional media ignores is an exciting side effect to this project and maybe a big part of the point.

      I’m not surprised that some people are suspicious of stories not distributed in traditional ways.


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