Opening: James Nachtwey – Memoria
Honoring photography’s power to bear witness and inspire change, through conversations and music that challenges borders
Image credit: Kabul, Afghanistan 1996 © James Nachtwey Archive, Hood Museum of Art Dartmouth
Join us for the opening of James Nachtwey – Memoria, an exhibition tracing the photographer’s uncompromising commitment to documenting conflict, suffering, and human dignity.
The evening opens with a musical journey by musicians of the Barenboim-Said Academy founded by Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said, whose mission – through music we challenge inherited borders – invites musicians from the middle east to confront and encounter each other and to overcome what separates them.
Followed by the central part of the night – a conversation between James Nachtwey and Dr. Julia Duchrow, Secretary General of Amnesty International Germany. Together they explore how images shape public conscience, expose injustice, and challenge the shared responsibilities of journalism, law, and human rights work. A Q&A section, in which you can ask questions to both, concludes the talk.
Afterwards, make sure to use your ticket to visit all of our exhibitions, including the one from James Nachtwey.
About the speaker
Dr. Julia Duchrow, Secretary General of Amnesty International in Germany
Dr. Julia Duchrow was appointed Secretary General of the German section on 1 November 2023. At Amnesty, she had previously served as Deputy Secretary General and member of the Executive Management. Before returning to Amnesty International in 2019, the jurist, who holds a doctorate in international law, headed the Human Rights & Peace Department at Bread for the World for eight years. This followed ten years working as Amnesty International’s policy officer on asylum issues.
She was an elected member of the Coordination Committee of the Forum Human Rights (2011 to 2023) and served as the German alternate member on the Management Board of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (2017 to 2022). From 2015 to 2018, she was also a member of the Advisory Board on Civilian Crisis Prevention at the German Federal Foreign Office. She is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the German Institute for Human Rights and on the advisory board of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR).
ABOUT THE ARTIST
James Nachtwey (b. 1948) is widely regarded as one of the leading photojournalists of the last half-century. Since 1981, he has documented conflict and social upheaval across the globe, working as a contract photographer for TIME since 1984, as a member of Magnum Photos from 1986 to 2000 and as a founding member of the photo agency VII from 2001 to 2008. His work has received numerous accolades, including the Robert Capa Gold Medal five times, the Magazine Photographer of the Year eight times, the World Press Photo of the Year Award twice, the Dan David Prize, the TED Prize, and the Princess of Asturias Award. Nachtwey’s photographs are held in major international collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Centre Pompidou and the Getty Museum. In 2001, War Photographer, a feature length documentary film, directed by Christian Frei, about the life and work of James Nachtwey was nominated for an Academy Award.
About the Barenboim-Said Academy
Since 2016, the state-recognized Barenboim-Said Akademie has been teaching talented young musicians, primarily from the Middle East and North Africa, in the pedagogical spirit of Edward Said and Daniel Barenboim. The two close friends founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Weimar, Germany, in 1999 with a mission to unite young Arab and Israeli musicians. The Barenboim-Said Akademie opened as a robust continuation of the spirit and mission of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. Named after the Orchestra’s founders and leading lights, with a curriculum likewise inspired by their initiative, the Barenboim-Said Akademie is committed to educating a new generation of musicians.