James Nachtwey was working in Afghanistan when he heard that Russia had invaded Ukraine. The eminent war photographer packed up his gear and traveled nonstop for five days to Kyiv, arriving just in time to celebrate his 74th birthday. (Laura Haim recently wrote a story in AIR MAIL about Nachtwey and other retirement-age photographers who answered the call of Ukraine.) The photographs Nachtwey took of Russian destruction for The New Yorker, AIR MAIL, and other publications are as harrowing as any of those that memorialized conflicts in South Africa, Rwanda, Bosnia, Palestine, Chechnya, and Iraq. Fittingly, a retrospective of his finest work, at Fotografiska in New York, is titled “Memoria.” Nachtwey, who has called himself an “anti-war” photographer, has spent his life documenting the most brutal acts of inhumanity while paying homage to the dignity of the victims. It’s a rare combination and well worth seeing close up. —Alessandra Stanley