James Nachtwey’s Wish:

I’m working on a story that the world needs to know about. I wish for you to help me break it in a way that provides spectacular proof of the power of news photography in the digital age.

Watch the Video Talk

Update:

• TEDsters Jon Kamen, David Rockwell and Stefan Sagmeister acted as the creative trust, developing the idea and the design around the idea, including the slideshow created by Sagmeister and the architecture of the displays, created by Rockwell.
• Clinton Foundation and Partners in Health have been responsible for getting James access to Health Ministries in a number of different countries, allowing him to shoot stories that have been intentionally kept in the dark.
• TEDsters Bob and Colleen Benoit from Mode Studios, have acted as lead producers, helping to package the exhibition model to spread out to global partners. Mode Studios is going to produce the NYC event, which will act as the cornerstone of the global display.
• Scharff Weisberg will provide the production equipment.
• Time Magazine is running this story as an 8-page spread to be released the day of this worldwide event.
• PR Newswire has committed to time on the Reuters screen in Times Square, to create press around the event and to display the images on the evening of OCT 3rd

TED is asking bloggers to support this initiative by embedding a badge on their sites (see below)

Photojournalist James Nachtwey is considered by many to be the greatest war photographer of recent decades. He has covered conflicts and major social issues in more than 30 countries. he was a TED prize winner in 2007 with the following wish James Nachtwey’s Wish: I’m working on a story that the world needs to know about. I wish for you to help me break it in a way that provides spectacular proof of the power of news photography in the digital age. 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. For more details on the 2008 winners — including blog entries and updates on their wishes — visit TED.

bloggers can add a link to the project by visiting TED  and the project can be seen live at locations world wide by visiting a list of global venues

TED press release: James Nachtwey: Photojournalist Why you should listen to him: For the past three decades, James Nachtwey has devoted himself to documenting wars, conflicts and critical social issues, working in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza, Israel, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, South Africa, Russia, Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo, Romania, Brazil and the United States. Nachtwey has been a contract photographer with Time since 1984. However, when certain stories he wanted to cover — such as Romanian orphanages and famine in Somalia — garnered no interest from magazines, he self-financed trips there. He is known for getting up close to his subjects, or as he says, “in the same intimate space that the subjects inhabit,” and he passes that sense of closeness on to the viewer. In putting himself in the middle of conflict, his intention is to record the truth, to document the struggles of humanity, and with this, to wake people up and stir them to action. He is the winner of the 2007 TED Prize, awarding him $100,000 and one wish to change the world. This was his wish: “I’m working on a story that the world needs to know about. I wish for you to help me break it in a way that provides spectacular proof of the power of news photography in the digital age.” On October 3, the story breaks … and we would like you to witness it. “Reticent about discussing his own life beyond the basic facts, he’s clearly one of those rare characters who focus singularly on their work with a missionary-like sense of purpose.” — Salon.com

This is potentially a very powerful combination of viral marketing and visual journalism – watch this space…