A Letter From the Publisher

By Robert L. Miller

For a photojournalist, the Robert Capa Gold Medal is the ultimate accolade. Given by the Overseas Press Club (to honor the LIFE photographer killed in Indochina in 1954) "for best photographic reporting or interpretation from abroad requiring exceptional courage and enterprise," it entails a deliberate decision to go in harm's way, recording battles and disasters.

To win the Capa is an achievement; to win it twice is truly remarkable. Last week James Nachtwey won for the third time in four years, becoming the second person in the history of the award (after the late Larry Burrows of LIFE) to do so. Nachtwey's picture stories included a series done jointly for TIME and West Germany's GEO on the Tamil rebels of Sri Lanka, and coverage for TIME of the Philippines and the mujahedin guerrillas in Afghanistan. In addition, Nachtwey was named Magazine Photographer of the Year by the National Press Photographers Association-University of Missouri School of Journalism.

This year's Capa award seemed especially ironic to Nachtwey, since the presentation came the day after the bombing of the Colombo bus station. Says he: "The recent news from Sri Lanka has underlined for me a sense of futility about effecting some kind of positive change in the world. But I believe journalists have to keep trying to shed some light on troubled areas."

The O.P.C. also honored Photographer Carl Mydans, whose 55 years at TIME and LIFE resulted in hundreds of photo essays and cover pictures. Having chronicled the fall of Manila in World War II and MacArthur's return to the archipelago three years later, the photographer went back to the Philippines last year for TIME. An O.P.C. Special Judges Citation recognized Mydans' Philippines coverage and pioneering record.

Other TIME photography award winners this spring include Catherine Leroy, Ralph Morse, Christian Mouchet, Regis Bossu, Robin Moyer, Selwyn Tait, James Balog and Matt Mahurin, who won N.P.P.A.-U.M.S.J. Awards of Excellence in various categories; and Dennis Brack, who won the White House News Photographers Association first prize in the Insiders Washington category with his portrait of ex-White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan.

Says Picture Editor Arnold Drapkin: "I am gratified that TIME's photojournalistic excellence has again been recognized. And I am especially pleased that my own admiration for Nachtwey, who manages to get into amazing places, has once again been matched by that of the O.P.C."