James Nachtwey began his work in 1981 during the hunger strike among prisoners in Northern Ireland. He had no background as a photographer and had to learn everything from scratch.
I became a photographer specifically to become a war photographer. It was a great responsibility and it took ten years of training before I felt that I was capable of contributing in a meaningful way, says the American photographer who is on site in Stockholm ahead of the opening on 18 October.
Aside from Nachtwey's image "Rwanda nyanza 1994", photographs by greats such as Sally Mann, Andres Serrano, Robert Mapplethorpe and David LaChapelle are on display in the exhibition "15 Photographic Years".
Curator Pauline Benthede describes it as a "tribute to photography and visual art in all its forms" – including video, sculpture and digital art. All in all, 120 photographers are contributing with works in the exhibition.
Our guests will make many new discoveries, she says.
