Best photographic reporting from abroad requiring exceptional courage and enterprise
Award Year: 1986
Award Name: The Robert Capa Gold Medal 1986\
Recipient: James Nachtwey
Affiliation: Time, GEO (German edition)
Honored Work: “Island at War”
Editors of GEO magazine in Germany and Time feared Nachtwey had been killed during his photo assignment for them with the Tamil guerrillas of Sri Lanka. Producing “Island at War,” he had in fact been with a Tamil group that was almost wiped out in a sudden night attack. He escaped by jumping out a window and over a fence. Since leaving Sri Lanka legally might mean confiscation of his film, Nachtwey, with the help of guerrillas, instead took an illegal and highly dangerous sea route to India, carrying his film in a waterproof package close to his body.
Citation for Excellence:
Dr. Robert Gale
Life magazine
“Witness to Disaster – an American Doctor at Chernobyl”