Shedding Light

from TB meningitis is comforted by his mother at Svay Rieng Provincial Hospital, Svay Rieng, Cambodia.
James Nachtwey / VII for TIME

TIME

By Richard Stengel, Managing Editor
Thursday, Oct. 02, 2008

One of the jobs of politicians in a democracy--and our job too--is to help voters understand complex issues. After all, that's how you earn what the Declaration of Independence calls "the consent of the governed." As the financial crisis has deepened, Washington has done a downright lousy job of explaining things--of connecting the dots between Wall Street and Main Street. The simple fact is that almost every American--whether it's through his pension or her business or his 401(k)--is deeply affected by failures in the banking system. Time has been telling this story for the past several weeks, and in this issue, the cover story by the acclaimed historian Niall Ferguson puts the current crisis in historical, financial and global perspective. As Ferguson shows, there are similarities to the Depression of the 1930s, but history can also be a guide to avoiding another one.

To say that Jim Nachtwey is the world's most distinguished photojournalist doesn't convey the power of what Jim does or the intensity with which he does it. Since 1984, Jim has documented conflicts around the world for TIME and been our photographic witness to many of the planet's most tragic events in recent history, from the genocide in Rwanda to the famine in Somalia.

Awful as the diseases and wars are that he has covered, his images bear a haunting and austere elegance. His pictures can make you tear up, but they're never sentimental. Sometimes you gasp at the terrible beauty he finds in something that is simply terrible. In other words, Jim's work is something rare in journalism: art. Jim has spent a lifetime turning agony into imagery and giving, as he puts it, "voice to those who otherwise would not have a voice."

For the past five months, Jim has been traveling around the world to document the spread of an ancient disease that has a deadly new face: extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB). The extraordinary pictures in this week's issue are the foundation for a unique collaboration with TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design)--an organization devoted to "ideas worth spreading." Last year Jim won the TED prize--a grant of $100,000 and his "wish to change the world." That wish was to create a global-awareness movement around XDR-TB. Beginning Oct. 3, TED will unveil multimedia projects in major cities around the world, including London, Los Angeles and New York (at the Time Warner Center). There will be slide shows in public spaces on all seven continents (including Antarctica) and viral videos using Jim's images that will spread across the Internet. Thanks to Jim and ted, this hidden killer will be hidden no longer.

Richard Stengel, MANAGING EDITOR