don't worry I'm a professional
photography has the power to good
photography has the power power power
the power to undo your assumptions about
the world change your perspective on
life and surprise people with something
that they had no idea existed inspired
horrifying stop time for a moment
there's an incredible passport to
people's lives images are so powerful
that they can change the course of
people's lives they can change the
course of history photography can change
the world never underestimate the power
is still frame how can we make the
horror that we see in these pictures
stop when people see this photograph I
hope that they are overcome with a sense
of urgency I want them to ask and scream
for change to see that oh that could be
me and make connections between people
it's a universal language one little
hammer a weapon against what's wrong out
there
you have to care you really have to care
it sounds simple Brett I even get
emotional sometimes when I talk about
you cannot do superior work if you're a
different are you gonna it's not the
individual photograph it's what you do
with it and who you engage with it that
makes it powerful well we live in a
world where it's easy to say that people
don't care anymore
it's been proven to me time and again
that people do care how could you ever
be done no you don't ever think you know
you just have to do it there's always
one more picture
just please it takes like years of
working just wait a minute one more just
to hone your vision then I'll be done no
he won't
the moment you think you've got it you
you're dead I think it is an addiction
to be in the presence of powerful human
emotions to see the incredible beauty
and desperate circumstances that people
are able to survive in to see the Rope
nature of humanity I photograph to
understand you name it we can do it you
could drop us off any place on earth and
we'd get the job done we would it's all
we've ever done what does it take to be
an underwater photographer we go to the
ends of the earth and then we go
underwater there is nothing more
beautiful captivating amazing spiritual
as what's around us right now I try and
cover the emotion and the moment and if
there is any way to make it a bit
beautiful and intense and wonderful is
what I'm seeing right now in front of me
the goal for me is to not turn the
reader away the goal for me is to pull
in the reader and to have them ask
questions and that's what I'm trying to
bring to people that's what I really try
and do we're not operating in a vacuum
human beings you know can't exist alone
and I find that some little tiny beetle
with bright green eyes is no less
magnificent than a grizzly bear
[Music]
and no less magnificent than me my main
subject has been the collision between
human needs and nature and that contact
zone I've always believed is one of the
the critical issues of our time we'll
never understand
communities that are not like ourselves
without time everyone would take a good
picture especially now but to take great
photographs you need time you need
patience you need support and National
Geographic gives you done it might not
happen with one image it might take
thousands of images layered in a
consciousness a national consciousness
of an individual consciousness to really
move people forward move people to
action but I do believe images have that
power power to open your mind change
your life connect you to the rest of the
world it makes me feel alive and
connected to the world and maybe so just
brief little moments I feel like maybe I
understand something about the world
what I have learned traveling and
photographing in so many countries is
that there is not one right way of
living it's more important how people
are the same than how they're different
to revel in the complexity and beauty of
a natural world
and then to remember that to to then
apply that to my human neighbors as well
we are all human beings with desires
with tragedies with joy with laughter
and that is much more than what
separates us if you want to be a
photographer particularly a
photojournalist you want to learn about
the world and you want to learn about
yourself and you want to find things
that you genuinely care about because
that would be the source of the greatest
work you'll do
[Music]
okay here in my standard one-liner bit
of advice if you want to be a better
photographer stand in front of more
interesting stuff that's it you can call
now
[Laughter]
[Music]