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David Turnley: New York Times Interview

Turnley Rwanda

On the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, The New York Times interviewed David Turnley on his experience and the photographs he took while covering the events.

Q. How did Rwanda change you? This wasn’t just one of 50 assignments where you witnessed history.

A. For 20 years it’s been very hard for me to make sense of this, and I haven’t been ready to go back to look at the photos. I have lived with the frustration from what I saw in Rwanda about the capacity of human behavior. I think it’s given me a tremendous amount of motivation to find other kinds of ways, other dimensions of that manifestation to make that real for people.

Witness to History, Searching for Dignity’ — An interview with David Turnley, by James Estrin