Light in Dark Places, a new book by photojournalist and physician Matthew Naythons, brings together more than four decades of photography, reportage, and personal reflection on some of the most pivotal global and American events of the late twentieth century.
Published by the Briscoe Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin and distributed by the University of Texas Press, the book features opening essays by New Yorker writers Judith Thurman and Jon Lee Anderson, followed by an afterword by noted historian Dr. Don Carleton, which together provide critical and historical context for Naythons’ life and work.
Trained as a physician and self-taught as a photojournalist, Naythons forged a singular and unexpected path—one that placed him on the front lines of history while remaining deeply attuned to the human condition.
Light in Dark Places includes nearly 200 photographs alongside “The Road I Chose,” his autobiographical narrative tracing a journey from California emergency rooms to war zones, refugee camps, and sites of political upheaval across the globe—propelled by what he calls chutzpah, luck, and stubborn resolve.
The book documents defining moments in both his life and career, from early photographs of JFK’s funeral, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and the Yom Kippur War in Israel to landmark assignments for TIME, Newsweek, and National Geographic that followed. Among them are the fall of Saigon, departing on a Marine helicopter during the final evacuation and multi-year coverage of the Nicaraguan Revolution, from the earliest Sandinista barricades in the cities to the revolutionaries’ triumphal entry into Managua. Naythons was also the first journalist to reach the horrors of Jonestown, landing at night in a silent, dark encampment.
Matthew Naythons: Light in Dark Places
Text by Judith Thurman, Jon Lee Anderson, Dr. Don Carleton and Matthew Naythons
288 pages, 200 photos
Size: 10×1.4x12in.
Color / black and white
Hardback
ISBN 978-1-953480-23-1
$50.00
Published by Brisco Center for American History, UT-Austin
The Exhibition Light in Dark Places opened at UC Berkley on February 5th.
